THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NKW  YORK  •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON  •   BOMBAY  •   CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


THE  TEACHING 
OF  SCIENCE 


BT 


JOHN  F.  WOODHULL,  PH.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE 
T1ACHEB3  COLLEGE,   COLUMBIA   UNIVEBSETT 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1918 

Att  rights  reserved 


OOPTBIOHT,  1918, 

BY  THE  MAOMILLAN  COMPANY. 
Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  July,  1918. 


NotfaoontJ 

J.  8.  Cashing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

THE  addresses  and  papers  collected  in  this  volume 
were  written  for  special  occasions  and  delivered  to 
various  audiences  during  a  period  of  more  than 
twenty  years.  They  all  however  bear  upon  one 
general  theme,  science  teaching,  and  indicate  a  con- 
sistent trend  of  thought.  In  a  measure,  they  con- 
stitute the  history  of  a  movement  in  education. 

The  title  of  the  book  requires  a  word  of  explana- 
tion. The  addresses  were,  for  the  most  part,  de- 
livered to  teachers  of  physics  and  chemistry.  Why 
then  should  not  the  title  be  The  Teaching  of  Phys- 
ical Science  ?  Although  the  illustrations  were  of 
necessity  chosen  mostly  from  physical  science,  the 
addresses  were  a  constant  appeal  to  all  science 
teachers  to  teach  science  rather  than  special  sciences. 

The  addresses  are  arranged  in  chronological 
rather  than  logical  order.  Although  the  same  theme 
is  often  repeated,  the  treatment  is  progressive  as 
befits  the  history  of  the  growth  of  certain  ideas 
among  teachers. 


£48060 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTBB  PAGE 

I.    THE  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF  NATURAL  SCIENCE       .        .  1 

1.  The  habit  of  investigation 1 

2.  The  habit  of  observing  relations  —  scientific  observation  3 

3.  Scientific  imagination      .         .         „   .     .         .         .         .  5 

4.  Scientific  conservatism  —  reason  vs.  authority        .         .  7 

5.  Painstaking  habits           .         .         ..       *         .         .         .  8 

6.  Science  for  moral  ballast  —  a  basis  for  religion       .        .  9 
7    The  study  of  science  is  humanitarian      .  f'-ij.V?       .         .  10 

II.    THS  ENRICHMENT  OF  THE  HIGH-SCHOOL  COURSE  IN  PHYSICS  13 

1.  Relation  of  the  high-school  course  to  college  requirements  13 

2.  The  college  entrance  course  too  meager  in  general  infor- 

mation and  in  the  applications  of  physics  to  daily 
experience        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .15 

3.  The  need  of  prolixity.     Tyndall's  book  of  600  pages  on 

heat  is  more  comprehensible  than  the  few  encyclo- 

•       .          pedic  pages  of  the  text-books  .         .  ,      .         .         .  16 

Ls^f-   \alue  of  lectures 17 

~     5.   The  study  of  phenomena 19 

6.  Organizing  past  experiences 21 

7.  Ihe  equipment  of  a  modern  school  building  is  better 

than  the  conventional  laboratory  apparatus  for  pur- 
poses of  instruction 22 

III.     MODERN  TREND  OF  PHYSICS  AND  CHEMISTRY  TEACHING    .  24 
]    .^4.   More  descriptive  and  less  mathematical  physics  and 

chemistry         .       ..         ..       .         .         .'        *     •    .  24 

2.  Tie  drift  of  pupils  away  from  physical  science       .         .  25 

3.  Tie  requirements  are  clumsy,  illogical,  and  stupid          .  27 
I     4.   High-school  pupils  are  not  lacking  in  willingness  or 

ability  to  work.     They  are  patient  sufferers  with 

poor  teaching •      ,v       •  ^ 

5.   Pablic  sentiment  will  settle  some  questions    ...  31 
vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAOE 

IV.     THE  INTENSIVE  METHOD  IN  CHEMISTRY     ....      40 

1.  Browsing  vs.  thoroughness 40 

2.  Teachers  of  chemistry  need  courses  in  applied  science 

and  in  a  great  variety  of  sciences     ....      43 

3.  Reasons  for  teaching  principles  always  with  reference  to 

their  applications     .......      43 

V.    SCIENCE  FOB  CULTURE ,46 

1.  Humanism  which  is  not  scientific  and  science  which  is  not 

humanistic  are  worthless          .         .         .         .        .47 

2.  Thoroughness  of  understanding  is  a  slow  growth    .        .      48 

3.  Exactness  comes  relatively  late       .         .         .         .     |  :      49 

4.  More  important  to  cultivate  openmindedness  than  to 

be  correct .  .         .         .         .         .  49 

5.  Instruction  demands  simplicity  and  progression  —  ^ot 

truth I    .       50 

6.  We  want  to  be  put  in  control  of  our  faculties,  not  de- 

prived of  them  by  education    .         .         .         .        .       51 

7.  Limitations  on  the  inductive  method      .        .        .  |      .      51 

8.  Learning  by  imitation .52 

9.  Science  is  not  solely  for  the  men  of  science,  but  als|>  for 

the  people        ........      57 

10.  To  know  any  one  science,  it  is  necessary  to  know  Jnuch 

of  the  rest J        .       58 

11.  To  arouse  a  love  of  study  in  any  subject  is  to  talje  the 

first  step  toward  making  a  man  a  scholar  .       59 

12.  Physical  science,  after  religion,  the  greatest  power  in  the 

world 60 

13.  Scientific  studies  fill  the  mind  with  lofty  ideals,  elevated 

conceptions,  and  noble  thoughts      .        .  .60 

VI.     How  THE  PUBLIC  WILL  SOLVE  OUR  PROBLEMS  OF  SCIENCE 

TEACHING  „        .        .        .        .        .        .        .62 

1.  Education  should  be  an  exponent  of  the  times       .         .      62 

2.  The  public  will  take  greater  control  of  educatiolal  in- 

stitutions and  the  number  of  pupils  will  greatly 
increase  .        •       V      *      ^      •»      •       I-     „    •      63 

3.  The  public  will  no  doubt  require  that  science  iastruc- 

tion  shall  be  practical       .         .         .         •,      V         •       66 
t  /   4.  Science  teaching  will  be  more  humanized       .       \        ,      67 

V 


CONTENTS  ix 

PAGE 

5.  The  status  of  the  teacher  will  improve         ...      68 

6.  The  evils  of  uniformity  will  disappear ....      71 

7.  Laboratory  work  will  be  curtailed  and  more  impor- 

tance will  be  attached  to  the  lecture     ...      74 


VII.    THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE      ....      82 

1.  The  native  and  acquired  gifts  requisite  for  a  teacher  of 

physical  science .84 

2.  The  ideas  of  authors  of  text-books,  as  exhibited  in  the 

prefaces  of  their  books,  regarding  the  vitalizing  of 
physics,  the  use  of  the  inductive  method,  the  use 
of  mathematics  in  physics  teaching,  quantitative 
work,  lectures,  simplification  of  subject  matter 
and  of  apparatus 87 

3.  The  ideas  concerning  the  teaching  of  physics  which 

obtained  a  century  or  more  ago    .        .  .99 

4.  "Object  lessons" 103 

Is     5.   The  best  order  for  instruction  is  not  from  principles  to 

applications,  but  the  reverse  .  .  .  .112 
I  6.  The  project  of  water  supply  to  large  cities  .  .  .115 
IT  7.  A  sample  physics  leaflet  on  the  air  .  .  .120 

8.   How  Ferguson  presented  the  "spring  of  the  air"  one 

hundred  and  fifty  years  ago 128 

I/  9-   Araott's  treatment  of  "action  and  reaction"        .        .     134 

10.   Controlling  fires 137 

/    11.   A  project  concerning  eggs 148 

VIII.    WHAT  SPECIALIZATION  HAS  DONE  FOR  PHYSICS  TEACHING    152 

1.  Early  specialization  unfits  for  research  as  well  as  for 

teaching 152 

2.  College  instructors  ashamed  to  teach  .        .        .        .153 

3.  Ninety-four  per  cent  of  science  teachers  in  the  high 

schools  are  obliged  to  teach  every  one  of  the 
sciences,  and  seventy  per  cent  are  obliged  to 
teach  one- third  of  all  the  subjects  taught  in  their 
schools.  Why  then  does  the  university  require 
them  to  specialize  in  one  subject  in  their  prepara- 
tion to  teach?  .  .  .  .  .  .  .154 

4.  The  community  demands  general  courses    .        ...     155 

5.  Changing  educational  theories     ,        ,.       ,        ,        .    155 


x  CONTENTS 

OHAPTEB  PAO» 

6.   Public  dissatisfaction  with  the  teaching  of  to-day  as  ex- 
pressed by  numerous  leaders  of  educational  thought    156 

IX.    THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  IN  PHYSICS  OF 

THE  COLLEGE  ENTRANCE  EXAMINATION  BOARD    .        .159 

1.  Fitting  the  colleges  for  the  high-school  graduates   .         .159 

2.  The  College  Entrance  Examination  Board  is  merely  a 

bureau     .........     160 

3.  The  "readers"  of  examination  papers  are  the  greatest 

hindrance  to  progress       ......     161 

4.  The  curtailment  of  laboratory  requirements   .         .         .161 

5.  The  number  of  topics  prescribed  is  too  large  .         .         .164 

6.  The  treatment  of  principles  and  their  practical  applica- 

*  tions 167 

i--4?.  "Fundamentals"  which  are  not  fundamental          .         .  168 

8.  "Thoroughness"  our  besetting  sin 169 

9.  The  block-measuring  mania 169 

10.  Excessive  drill  in  mathematics 169 

11.  The  privilege  of  learning  things  with  the  expectation  of 

forgetting  some  of  them  .         .         .        .        .        .170 

12.  The  privilege  of  learning  many  things  superficially          .     171 

13.  Do  examinations  select  the  best  persons  for  college 

entrance? 172 

X.    LEARNING  FROM  EXPERIENCE 173 

1.  Experience  may  serve  to  entrench  a  person  more  firmly 

in  error 173 

2.  Teaching   chemical    doctrine   contrasted   with   leading 

pupils  to  derive  knowledge  from  experience     .         .174 

3.  Principles  cannot  be  taught  except  through  their  ap- 

plications         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .176 

4.  Science  teaching  should  give  larger  information      .         .176 

5.  The  college  preparatory  courses  in  chemical  doctrine 

are  related  to  science  as  grammar  is  to  literature     .     177 

6.  Our  experiences  and  our  observations  of  nature  are  not 

differentiated  under  such  headings  as  chemistry, 
physics,  biology,  etc.        .        ..       .        ...        .     177 

7.  Experiences  with  iron  and  the  corroding  of  other  metals     177 

8.  Effects  of  temperature  and  time  upon  chemical  changes     179 

9.  Experiences  with  burning  paper,  etc.,  related  to  destruc- 

tive distillation         .        .        .        •     '-";>   .; -•'-*  •.'•    «     180 


CONTENTS  ri 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

XI.    PRACTICAL  CHEMISTRY  .       *       »^      *       .       »'     *       .  185 

1.  Classification  of  teachers  into : 
(a)  Teachers  of  a  subject. 

(6)  Teachers  of  a  group  of  allied  subjects. 

(c)  Just  merely  teachers 185 

2.  The  non-specialized  teachers  of  chemistry  present  the 

more  practical  bearings  of  the  subject  .         .         .  187 

3.  General   science   is   more   practical   than   chemistry, 

physics,  etc 188 

4.  Will  segregation  help  toward  a  more  practical  treat- 

ment of  the  subject  ? 189 

5.  Who  will  do  more  toward  rendering  the  subject  prac- 

tical, men  or  women  teachers  ?  .         .         .189 

6.  Will  a  greater  use  of  the  library  contribute  toward 

more  practical  chemistry  teaching?       .        .        .  190 

7.  Do  the  statistics  concerning  the  elimination  of  pupils 

from  school  indicate  that  teachers  are  practical  ?  .  190 

XIL    GENERAL  SCIENCE 192 

.     1.   A  circular  which  was  sent  out 192 

2.   Returns  which  came  in 194 

XIII.    SCIENCE  TEACHING  BY  PROJECTS 197 

1.  "Serious"  science  quite  as  appropriate  for  children  as 

for  adults .197 

2.  College  preparatory  courses  are  not  science          .        .198 

3.  College  graduates  show  little  of  the  fruits  of  scientific 

training         .         ...         .         .         .         .  198 

4.  Colleges  are  not  interested  in  education       .         .         .  199 

5.  General  science  furnishes  a  new  basis  for  organization  201 
;    „.    6.  There  should  be  an  intimate  relation  between  the 

work  of  the  school  and  the  work  of  the  world       .  202 

7.  The  "preparatory"  fallacy  .        .        .        .       v        .  203 

I  ^s^>  The  project  method  in  education         f        ,        >  203 

PROJECTS  IN  SCIENCE        . .,.'    .•/'/•       •.       •       ^ ...     •  210 
XV.     THE  NATURAL  METHOD    .  r.,  .-.»-•.    ^      fA      .       .        .218 

1.  We  cannot  teach  principles  except  through  experience  218 

2.  One  studies  physics  from  his  birth  to  his  grave   .        .  218 


XIV 


xii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

3.  A  new  type  of  college  entrance  examination     .        .  220 

4.  Our  so-called  thoroughness  is  rather  wooden     .         .  220 

XVI.  THE  HIGH-SCHOOL  SITUATION 222 

1.  The  phenomenal  growth  of  high  schools    .         .         .  222 

2.  How  this  has  brought  embarrassment        .         .         .  223 

3.  Girls  outnumber  boys,  but  courses  are  planned  for  boys  225 

4.  Ignorance  characterizes  specialists     ....  226 

5.  Neglect  of  books  for  science 226 

6.  Increase  in  the  number  of  subjects    ....  226 

7.  Changing  ideas  concerning  the  purpose  of  teaching  .  226 

XVII.  THE  AIMS  AND  METHODS  OF  SCIENCE  TEACHING  .  228 

1.  These  are  best  portrayed  in  the  lives  and  labors  of  the 

I                     masters 228 

/J^-The  project  method 228 

j/r     3.   How  a  project  is  characterized 228 

4.  Children  and  adults  alike  are  endowed  by  nature  with 

the  elements  of  the  scientific  spirit     .         .        .  230 

5.  The  curriculum  a  series  of  projects    ....  280 

XVIII.     THE  IMITATION  OF  THE  MASTERS 231 

k        1.   The  project  method  works  toward  definitions  and 

fundamental  principles  rather  than  from  them  .  231 

2.  Our  "text-books"  are  encyclopedias  and  should  be 

used  as  books  of  reference,  not  as  course  of  study  231 

3.  The  great  scientists  have  been  great  readers  of  books 

on  science .'-.....  232 

4.  Students  in  science  should  read  biographies  of  the 

scientists,  histories  of  the  development  of  science 
and  invention,  original  monographs  of  the  work 

of  scientists,  etc 233 

'    /    5.  Pasteur,  the  great  exponent  of  the  project  method    .  234 

\r     6.  Some  misconceptions  of  the  project  method      .         .  234 

7.  Pasteur  not  a  specialist     .         .         .         .         ..,  %  .  236 

8.  Pasteur's  great  ambition  was  to  serve  humanity       .  238 
Educators    prone    to    separate    into    camps    over 

definitions.        . 238 

10.  Most  great  scientists  have  been  disciples  and  imita- 

tors of  other  great  scientists       .    '     .     ;    .        .  239 

11.  No  one  can  teach  the  scientific  method  unless  he  is 

himself  a  scientist      ..,.,.  239 


REFERENCES 

ADDRESSES  AND  PAPERS  BY  JOHN  F.  WOODHULL 

1.  Educational  Value  of  Natural  Science,  Educational  Review, 

April,  1895. 

2.  Enrichment  of  High  School  Course,  School  Science  and 

Mathematics,  April,  1905. 

3.  Modern  Trend  of  Physics  and  Chemistry  Teaching,  Educa- 

tional Review,  March,  1906. 

4.  The  Intensive  Method  in  Chemistry,  School  Science  and 

Mathematics,  October,  1906. 

5.  Science  for  Culture,  School  Review,  February,  1907. 

6.  How  the  Public  Will  Solve  our  Problems,  School  Science  and 

Mathematics,  March,  1909. 

7.  The  Teaching  of  Physical  Science,  Teachers  College  Record, 

January,  1910. 

8.  What    Specialization    Has    Done    for   Physics   Teaching, 

Science,  May  13,  1910. 

9.  Significance  of  the  Requirements  in  Physics  of  the  College 

Entrance  Examination  Board,  School  Science  and  Mathe- 
matics, January,  1910. 

10.  Learning  from  Experience,  School  Science  and  Mathematics, 

October,  1912. 

11.  Practical  Chemistry,  School  Science  and  Mathematics,  April, 

1913. 

12.  General  Science,  School  Science  and  Mathematics,  June,  1913, 

and  Educational  Review,  October,  1914. 

13.  Teaching   by   Projects,   School   Science  and  Mathematics, 

March,  1915. 

xiii 


xiv  REFERENCES 

14.  Projects,  Teachers  College  Record,  January,  1916. 

15.  The  Natural  Method,  School  and  Society,  January  8,  1916. 

16.  The   High   School   Situation,    General   Science   Quarterly, 

March,  1917. 

17.  The  Aims  and  Methods  of  Science  Teaching,  General  Science 

Quarterly,  November,  1917. 

18.  The  Imitation  of  the  Masters,  School  and  Society.] 


THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 


THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF 
NATURAL  SCIENCE1 

IN  this  paper  I  have  undertaken  only  to  state  the 
case ;  the  limits  of  space  will  not  permit  the  presen- 
tation of  arguments  to  defend  it.  It  will  be  under- 
stood that  I  have  not  attempted  to  state  the  value 
of  science  as  it  is  now  taught  in  the  schools,  but  rather 
as  it  might  be  taught.  In  mentioning  values  I  have 
omitted  several  considerations,  such,  for  example,  as 
the  giving  of  useful  information,  and  dwelt  rather 
upon  what  seems  to  me  to  be  the  chief  value  of  the 
study  of  science,  viz.,  the  training  in  certain  habits 
which  may  be  characterized  as  scientific. 

Through  the  study  of  science  the  habit  of  investi- 
gation is  acquired.  As  soon  as  one  begins  to  explore 
by  the  methods  of  natural  science  —  and  a  pupil  in 
the  primary  school  is  not  too  young  to  begin  —  he 
feels  a  strong  impulse  to  investigate  further.  He 
finds  that  his  field  of  knowledge  has  been  extremely 
small,  and  that  he  has  been  entertaining  fantastic 
ideas  concerning  that  which  lies  outside  of  his  little 

1  Paper  read  before  the  Harvard  Teachers'  Association,  March  9, 
1895. 

B  1 


*  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 


:  ^circle*  Ve^yMiiahy  of  his  ideas  break  down  when  he 
begins  to  investigate,  and  correct  ideas  must  be 
established  in  their  place.  Children  are  generally 
eager  to  investigate,  but  a  notion  has  long  prevailed 
that  if  they  become  wise  through  their  own  explora- 
tions they  are  not  so  likely  to  be  good.  As  a  result 
of  this  it  has  happened  that  nature's  feasts  have  been 
spread  in  vain,  while  we  have  with  one  accord  made 
it  our  excuse  that  we  think  it  safer  to  take  our  knowl- 
edge only  at  second  hand.  Some  one  has  said,  "In 
this  world  a  large  part  of  the  business  of  the  wise  is 
to  counteract  the  efforts  of  the  good."  It  is  the  un- 
doubted mission  of  science  to  enable  the  good  to 
become  the  wise.  Dr.  Josiah  Strong  in  the  New  Era 
says: 

"Generation  after  generation  has  repeated  the  mistakes  of  its 
predecessors  at  a  dreadful  cost  of  suffering  and  loss,  which  was 
as  needless  as  it  would  be  for  ships,  in  clear  weather,  to  split  on 
rocks  known  to  sailors  for  centuries." 

Professor  Brinton  says : 

"  The  good  which  we  endeavor  to  attain  is  scientific  truth, 
the  one  test  of  which  is  that  it  will  bear  untrammeled  and 
unlimited  investigation.  Scientific  truth  is  absolutely  open 
to  the  world ;  it  is  as  free  as  air,  as  visible  as  light,  there  is  no 
such  thing  about  it  as  an  inner  secret,  a  mysterious  gnosis, 
shared  by  the  favored  few,  the  select  illuminati,  concealed 
from  the  vulgar  horde  or  masked  to  them  under  ambiguous 
terms.  Wherever  you  find  mystery,  concealment,  occultism, 
you  may  be  sure  that  the  spirit  of  science  does  not  dwell, 
and  what  is  more,  that  it  would  be  an  un welcomed  intruder. 
Such  pretensions  belong  to  pseudo-science,  to  science  falsely  so 
called,  shutting  itself  out  of  the  light,  because  it  is  afraid  of  the 
light." 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  3 

The  scientific  mind  investigates  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  finding  out  the  truth,  and  to  the  truth  all  precon- 
ceived ideas  are  subordinated.  "  It  does  not  assume  to 
know  what  ought  to  be,  but  finds  out  what  is.  On  this 
line  all  the  victories  of  modern  science  have  been  won." 

Through  the  study  of  science  the  habit  of  observ- 
ing relations  is  acquired.  Persons  may  have  the 
habit  of  observing  to  the  minutest  details  things  in 
which  they  are  interested,  without  practicing  scien- 
tific observation.  Scientific  observation  is  always 
organized  observation.  It  relates  one  thing  to  an- 
other, lighting  up  one  fact  by  another,  searching  for 
the  relation  of  cause  and  effect.  The  unscientific 
mind  is  insensible  to  the  lessons  which  its  observa- 
tions and  experiences  would  teach.  I  have  dis- 
covered a  large  number  of  persons,  old  and  young, 
who  have  not  learned  the  lesson  that  when  they 
look  into  a  mirror  obliquely  they  see  objects  not 
from  their  own  immediate  vicinity,  but  those  situ- 
ated upon  the  opposite  side  of  a  perpendicular  to 
the  surface  of  the  mirror.  I  have  also  discovered 
that  it  is  possible  for  persons  to  have  much  learning 
and  still  be  oblivious  to  such  an  obvious  fact.  Pro- 
fessor Wesley  Mills  says : 

"I  have  known  children  who  did  not  go  to  school  till  seven 
years  of  age,  who  prior  to  that  period  had  learned  to  be  good 
observers  of  what  was  going  on  around  them,  to  lose  all  love  for 
natural  objects  after  being  at  school  a  couple  of  years;  and  I 
do  also  know  to  my  sorrow  that  many  of  the  young  men  that 
enter  our  colleges  neither  know  how  nor  care  to  observe.  They 
prefer  not  to  look  nature  directly  in  the  face,  but  try  to  see  her 
through  the  medium  of  books,  lectures,  etc.,  and  for  this  our 
school  system  is  largely  responsible." 


4  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

A  college  graduate  and  a  candidate  for  the  degree 
of  Ph.D.  was  asked  what  evidence  he  had  that  air 
makes  a  fire  burn,  and  he  made  a  pitiable  spectacle 
trying  to  recall  what  the  authorities  said  upon  the 
subject.  A  boy  of  twelve  when  asked  the  same 
question  said : 

"We  close  the  stove  draughts  to  shut  out  the  air  when  we  wish 
to  check  the  fire,  and  with  a  bellows  we  blow  in  more  air  when 
we  wish  to  quicken  the  fire.'* 

The  Popular  Science  Monthly  in  an  editorial  says : 

"If  there  is  a  fact  that  experience  has  overwhelmingly  illus- 
trated and  established,  it  is  that  mere  book-teaching  of  science 
is  void  and  of  none  effect,  nay  that  it  is  worse;  that  it  has  an 
actively  injurious  effect  on  the  mind,  which  it  deadens  with  mean- 
ingless jargon  and  befogs  with  ill-comprehended  notions.  How 
hollow,  and  often  how  fantastically  absurd,  are  the  ideas  chil- 
dren acquire  of  things  of  which  they  are  told  but  which  they 
have  never  seen  or  handled.  Let  us  turn  children  out  of  the 
public  schools  ignorant,  if  need  be,  of  many  things  that  are 
taught  to  them  now,  but  let  this  idea  at  least  be  rooted  in  their 
minds,  that  this  world  is  made  up  of  real  things;  and  this 
further  idea,  that  words  are  worse  than  useless  unless  they  can 
be  applied  hi  the  most  definite  manner  to  well -understood 
objects  of  sense  or  of  thought.  What  a  blessing  it  would  be  if 
we  could  inspire  the  rising  generation  with  a  real  horror  of  vague 
and  meaningless  language.  It  would  mean  nothing  less  than  an 
intellectual  revolution  in  the  world." 

Scientific  observation  means  seeing  with  one's  eyes 
and  having,  as  a  result,  a  train  of  thoughts  start  in 
one's  own  brain.  Professor  Tyndall  said  that 

"Faraday  never  could  work  from  the  experiments  of  others, 
however  clearly  described.  He  knew  well  that  from  every  ex- 
periment issues  a  radiation,  luminous  in  different  degrees  to 
different  minds." 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  5 

The  following  is  presented  as  an  example  of  sci- 
entific observation.  We  built  a  fire  in  the  furnace 
which  smoked  much.  After  it  had  burned  a  few 
minutes  we  opened  the  door  and  found  it  covered 
with  drops  of  a  dark  brown  liquid  as  thick  as  molasses 
and  having  a  characteristic  odor  and  taste.  A 
piece  of  burning  paper  or  wood  was  dropped  upon  a 
white  plate.  Drops  of  the  liquid  appeared  upon  the 
plate  afterward  which  resembled  closely  those  found 
upon  the  furnace  door.  A  paper  tube  was  burned 
at  one  end  and  the  smoke  passed  through  the  full 
length  of  the  tube.  The  walls  of  the  tube  were 
found  afterward  to  be  saturated  with  a  liquid  like 
that  already  mentioned.  A  similar  liquid  was  found 
to  drip  from  the  joints  of  a  long  stovepipe  in  a  build- 
ing where  wood  was  burned.  A  similar  liquid  ap- 
peared to  saturate  the  rind  of  some  ham  which 
had  been  smoked.  A  scientific  imagination  is  re- 
quired to  assist  in  correlating  these  observations, 
and  a  scientific  conservatism  must  be  used  in  draw- 
ing conclusions  from  them. 

The  study  of  science  is  valuable  for  the  purpose 
of  developing  a  constructive  imagination.  The 
scientific  imagination  is  similar  to  that  which  en- 
ables a  sculptor  to  see  a  statue  in  a  block  of  marble, 
or  which  enables  a  painter  to  imagine  to  himself 
the  picture  he  is  to  make  upon  the  canvas,  or  that 
which  enables  the  architect  to  form  an  idea  of  the 
building  he  is  to  construct.  The  scientific  mind 
uses  imagination,  not  only  for  discovery,  but  for  ap- 
preciating facts.  Teachers  who  suppose  that  a 
school  laboratory  is  useful  only  for  teaching  the 


6  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

inductive  method  sometimes  say  that  life  is  too  short 
for  pupils  to  spend  much  time  discovering  truths 
which  have  been  already  discovered.  The  fact  is 
that  very  little  discovery  can  be  expected  to  take 
place  in  a  school  laboratory,  but  nevertheless  the 
laboratory  furnishes  the  only  means  by  which  the 
pupil  can  reach  an  understanding  of  the  truths  of 
his  science.  Through  the  microscope  one  sees  only 
minute  portions  of  an  object  at  one  time.  The  con- 
structive imagination  needed  to  form  a  conception 
of  the  whole  is  slowly  developed  by  working  with  the 
microscope.  By  laboratory  experiments  we  illus- 
trate in  a  small  way  the  great  phenomena  of  nature 
—  phenomena  which  are  too  large  to  be  presented 
as  a  whole  to  our  observation.  A  constructive 
imagination  is  needed  to  make  the  transition  from 
the  laboratory  experiment  to  the  natural  phenomena. 
For  the  purpose  of  developing  a  constructive  imagi- 
nation illustrative  experiments  have  a  high  value, 
and  should  be  mingled  with  all  quantitative  work. 
Scientific  observation  and  a  scientific  imagination 
were  developed  to  a  high  degree  in  Laplace  to  en- 
able him  to  conceive  the  nebular  hypothesis ;  and 
scientific  observation,  together  with  scientific  imagi- 
nation, is  requisite  to  all  who  would  appreciate  how 
the  nebular  hypothesis  explains  the  way  in  which 
worlds  are  made.  Scientific  observation  and  a 
scientific  imagination  enabled  Darwin  to  do  his 
work,  and  without  scientific  observation  and  sci- 
entific imagination  we  shall  never  be  able  to  ap- 
preciate evolution. 

A  person  who  has  acquired  the  habit  of  making 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  7 

use  of  scientific  investigation,  scientific  observation, 
and  scientific  imagination  will  surely  become  well 
informed.  Most  of  us  are  ignorant  when  we  might 
be  wise  if  we  would  give  attention  to  the  phenomena 
which  are  daily  presented  on  every  hand. 

Science  teaches  conservatism  in  making  and  ac- 
cepting conclusions.  It  begets  a  desire  to  examine 
the  evidence  for  everything.  It  propagates  a  whole- 
some skepticism  in  a  world  which  has  a  passion  for 
being  hoaxed.  If  the  scientific  mind  were  culti- 
vated more  widely,  newspapers  would  not  find  falsi- 
fying so  profitable,  advertisements  would  not  be  so 
palpably  untrue,  and  history  would  not  need  to  deal 
with  exaggerations  in  order  to  be  readable.  It  is 
probable  that  all  the  available  history  that  would 
be  useful  in  the  education  of  such  a  mind  might  be 
gathered  into  a  very  brief  course.  Science  is  largely 
a  matter  of  common  honesty.  The  first  thing  a 
person  has  to  do  when  he  wants  to  begin  to  be  an 
honest  man  is  to  take  an  inventory  of  his  stock  of 
knowledge,  or  what  he  has  considered  knowledge, 
and  throw  much  of  it  overboard,  following  the  ad- 
vice of  that  eminent  sage  who  said:  "It  is  better 
not  to  know  so  much  than  to  know  so  many  things 
that  are  not  so."  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the 
dishonesty  of  those  people  who  disregard  evidence 
does  more  harm  than  the  dishonesty  which  we  call 
lying  and  cheating.  Certainly  the  first  kind  of  dis- 
honesty is  far  more  prevalent  than  the  second. 
What  |one  gains  by  being  dishonest  with  himself 
in  respect  to  the  stock  of  knowledge  which  he  pos- 
sesses, it  would  be  difficult  to  say ;  yet  there  are  no 


8  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

possessions  to  which  one  is  apt  to  cling  so  tenaciously 
as  to  that  mass  of  knowledge  which  he  has  adopted 
either  without  evidence  or  contrary  to  evidence. 
The  scientific  mind  enthrones  reason  above  authority. 
The  world  has  suffered  too  much  from  authority. 
Ignorant  and  unreasonable  authority  has  forced 
into  submission  an  ignorant  and  unscientific  world, 
and  thus  resisted  the  progress  of  truth.  Even  a 
child  has  an  inalienable  right  to  an  explanation 
whenever  any  course  he  is  required  to  pursue  seems 
unreasonable  to  him.  It  is  tyranny  to  require  un- 
questioning obedience  if  an  explanation  is  possible. 

Painstaking  habits  are  developed  by  the  exercises 
of  a  well-conducted  scientific  laboratory.  Teachers 
of  science  should  require  carefulness  in  performing 
experiments,  carefulness  in  taking  observations, 
and  carefulness  in  drawing  inferences.  „.  Careless, 
slipshod  experimenting  will  always  go  hand-in-hand 
with  careless  observing  and  with  hasty  inferring. 
Most  of  the  knowledge  which  really  is  worth  while 
has  to  be  dug  out  by  dogged  persistence.  Perhaps 
our  education  cannot  be  too  extensive,  but  it  cer- 
tainly is  too  little  intensive.  We  are  sure  of  noth- 
ing. We  do  not  take  time  to  connect  and  correlate. 
We  do  not  digest  and  organize  our  knowledge.  We 
are  smatterers.  We  have  a  newspaper  education. 
We  deal  in  snap  judgments.  We  hold  opinions  upon 
profound  questions  without  any  study  whatever. 
Real  science  study  cannot  be  looked  upon  as  a 
diversion  or  a  device  for  getting  the  attention  of  a 
weary  class.  If  it  is  worthy  the  name  of  science,  it 
must  be  quite  as  disciplinary  as  the  study  of  classics 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  9 

or  mathematics.  It  may  be  pleasurable,  but  the 
pleasure  should  be  that  which  comes  from  a  sense  of 
increasing  power.  The  student  of  science  will  not 
be  satisfied  with  vagueness.  He  will  require  that 
his  knowledge  shall  be  very  definite,  and  he  will,  as 
a  result  of  training  in  science,  acquire  the  power 
of  giving  expression  to  his  knowledge  in  very  defi- 
nite language.  Such  masters  in  science  as  Huxley, 
Spencer,  and  Tyndall  are  masters  also  in  the  art  of 
saying  what  they  mean.  It  is  chiefly  in  this  respect 
that  science  furnishes  a  training  in  the  use  of 
language. 

"Common  sense"  is  not  a  natural  heritage;  it 
must  be  acquired.  To  this  end  the  study  of  science 
may  be  made  a  most  potent  agency. 

The  study  of  science  should  develop  the  capacity 
for  earning  a  living,  and  at  the  same  time  give  one 
reasonable  ideas  about  what  constitutes  good  living. 
It  should  act  as  a  moral  ballast.  Its  devotees  are 
not  subject  to  petty  vices.  It  cannot  be  said  of 
them  that  "they  are  more  afraid  of  doing  things 
conventionally  wrong  than  of  doing  things  morally 
wrong." 

Science  furnishes  a  basis  for  true  religion.  Pro- 
fessor Huxley  says : 

"True  science  and  true  religion  are  twin  sisters,  and  the 
separation  of  either  from  the  other  is  sure  to  prove  the  death 
of  both.  Science  prospers  exactly  in  proportion  as  it  is  reli- 
gious ;  and  religion  flourishes  in  exact  proportion  to  the  scientific 
depth  and  firmness  of  its  basis.  The  great  deeds  of  philosophers 
have  been  less  the  fruits  of  their  intellect  than  of  the  direction 
of  that  intellect  by  an  eminently  religious  tone  of  mind.  Truth 
has  yielded  herself  rather  to  their  patience,  their  love,  their 


10  THE  TEACHING   OF  SCIENCE 

singleheartedness,  and  their  self-denial,  than   to  their   logical 
acumen." 

Herbert  Spencer  says : 

"So  far  from  science  being  irreligious,  as  many  think,  it  is 
the  neglect  of  science  that  is  irreligious  —  it  is  the  refusal  to 
study  the  surrounding  creation  that  is  irreligious.  Take  a 
humble  simile.  Suppose  a  writer  were  daily  saluted  with  praise 
couched  in  superlative  language.  Suppose  the  wisdom,  the 
grandeur,  the  beauty  of  his  works  were  the  constant  topics  of 
the  eulogies  addressed  to  him.  Suppose  those  who  unceasingly 
uttered  these  eulogies  on  his  works  were  contented  with  looking 
at  the  outside  of  them;  and  had  never  opened  them,  much 
less  tried  to  understand  them.  What  value  should  we  put  upon 
their  praises  ?  What  should  we  think  of  their  sincerity  ?  Yet, 
comparing  small  things  to  great,  such  is  the  conduct  of  mankind 
in  general,  in  reference  to  the  universe  and  its  Cause.  Devotion 
to  science  is  a  tacit  worship,  a  tacit  recognition  of  worth  in  the 
thing  studied;  and,  by  implication,  in  their  Cause.  It  is  not 
mere  lip  homage,  but  a  homage  expressed  in  actions;  not  a 
mere  professed  respect,  but  a  respect  proved  by  the  sacrifice  of 
time,  thought,  and  labor.  Doubtless  to  the  superstitions  that 
pass  under  the  name  of  religion,  science  is  antagonistic,  but  not 
to  the  essential  religion  which  these  superstitions  merely  hide. 
Doubtless,  too,  in  much  of  the  science  that  is  current  there  is 
a  pervading  spirit  of  irreligion;  but  not  in  that  true  science 
which  has  passed  beyond  the  superficial  into  the  profound." 

The  study  of  science  is  humanitarian.  Professor 
Brinton  says : 

"The  aims  of  science  are  distinctly  beneficent.  Its  spirit 
is  that  of  charity  and  human  kindness.  Its  mission  is  noble, 
inspiring,  consolatory ;  lifting  the  mind  above  the  gross  contacts 
of  life,  preserving  aims  which  are  at  once  practical,  humanitarian, 
and  spiritually  elevating." 

Coleridge  said  that 


EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  11 

"Sir  Humphry  Davy  would  have  established  himself  in  the 
first  rank  of  England's  living  poets,  if  the  genius  of  our  country 
had  not  decreed  that  he  should  rather  be  the  first  in  the  first 
rank  of  its  philosophers  and  scientific  benefactors." 

Goethe  found  nothing  inconsistent  in  the  spirit  of 
science  and  the  spirit  of  poetry.  Some  people  give 
their  idea  of  a  scientist  in  the  expression  "  a  cold- 
blooded scientist."  If  they  think  that  the  study  of 
science  makes  one  incapable  of  love,  they  should  read 
the  lives  of  Agassiz  and  Faraday ;  and  if  they  think 
that  the  scientist  is  incapable  of  enthusiasm,  they 
should  visit  him  in  his  laboratory  or  follow  him 
through  the  fields. 

Mr.  Spencer  says : 

"The  current  opinion  that  science  and  poetry  are  opposed 
is  a  delusion.  On  the  contrary,  science  opens  up  realms  of 
poetry  where  to  the  unscientific  all  is  a  blank.  Is  it  not  indeed 
an  absurd,  and  almost  a  sacrilegious,  belief  that  the  more  a  man 
studies  nature  the  less  he  reveres  it  ?  Think  you  that  a  drop  of 
water,  which  to  the  vulgar  eye  is  but  a  drop  of  water,  loses  any- 
thing in  the  eye  of  the  physicist  who  knows  that  its  elements 
are  held  together  by  a  force  which,  if  suddenly  liberated,  would 
produce  a  flash  of  lightning  ?  Think  you  that  what  is  carelessly 
looked  upon  by  the  uninitiated  as  a  mere  snow-flake  does  not 
suggest  higher  associations  to  one  who  has  seen  through  a  micro- 
scope the  wondrously  varied  and  elegant  forms  of  snow-crystals  ? 
Think  you  that  the  rounded  rock  marked  with  parallel  scratches 
calls  up  as  much  poetry  in  an  ignorant  mind  as  in  the  mind  of  a 
geologist,  who  knows  that  over  this  rock  a  glacier  slid  a  million 
years  ago  ?  The  truth  is  that  those  who  have  not  entered  upon 
scientific  pursuits  know  not  a  tithe  of  the  poetry  by  which  they 
are  surrounded.  Whoever  has  not  in  youth  collected  plants 
and  insects  knows  not  half  the  halo  of  interest  which  lanes  and 
hedgerows  can  assume.  Whoever  has  not  sought  for  fossils 
has  little  idea  of  the  poetical  associations  that  surround  the  places 


12  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

where  imbedded  treasures  were  found.  Whoever  at  the  sea-side 
has  not  had  a  microscope  and  aquarium  has  yet  to  learn  what 
the  highest  pleasures  of  the  sea-side  are.  Sad,  indeed,  is  it  to 
see  how  men  occupy  themselves  with  trivialities,  and  are  in- 
different to  the  grandest  phenomena  —  care  not  to  understand 
the  architecture  of  the  heavens,  but  are  deeply  interested  in 
some  contemptible  controversy  about  the  intrigues  of  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots !  —  are  learnedly  critical  over  a  Greek  ode,  and 
pass  by  without  a  glance  that  grand  epic  written  by  the  finger  of 
God  upon  the  strata  of  the  earth." 


n 

THE  ENRICHMENT  OF  THE  HIGH-SCHOOL 
COURSE  IN  PHYSICS1 

A  LEADER  in  education  has  said : 

"The  education  and  training  afforded  by  our  schools  is  too 
greatly  influenced  by  the  requirements  of  college  entrance. 
Thus  the  majority  are  unprovided  with  the  most  efficient  and 
most  useful  training  for  the  lives  they  are  to  lead.  The  schools 
teach  facts  without  practical  and  useful  ends  in  view  and  with- 
out instruction  as  to  how  these  facts  are  to  be  applied." 

He  says  further  with  reference  to  the  particular 
school  under  his  charge,  which  sends  eighty  per  cent 
of  its  pupils  to  college : 

"There  is  no  alternative.  Our  efforts  must  be  directed  to 
making  as  good  a  preparatory  school  as  the  colleges  will  permit ; 
the  ideal  secondary  school  must  await  a  more  enlightened  age  of 
higher  education." 

Accepting  this  as  the  best  statement  of  the  situ- 
ation that  can  be  made,  it  is  probably  wise  to  work 
harmoniously  with  the  present  order  of  things  while 
using  every  effort  toward  a  better  order. 

Such  an  association  as  this  can  do  much  toward 
bringing  on  that  more  enlightened  age  when  the 
relation  between  the  college  and  secondary  school 

1  Paper  read  before  the  Eastern  Association  of  Physics  Teachers,  No- 
vember 5,  1904. 

13 


14  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

shall  be  similar  to  that  which  now  exists  between 
secondary  and  elementary  schools.  This  will  mean 
that  the  secondary  school  will  give  the  pupil  what 
he  needs  and  the  college  will  accept  a  pupil  who  has 
been  educated  according  to  his  own  needs  rather 
than  the  supposed  needs  of  the  college.  The  needs 
of  high-school  pupils  are  much  better  understood  by 
high-school  teachers  than  by  college  professors,  and 
they  should  determine  what  should  fit  them  for 
college.  Elementary  school  teachers  are  acknowl- 
edged experts  upon  the  educational  requirements  of 
their  own  pupils.  They  would  brook  no  inter- 
ference from  high-school  teachers  were  it  offered. 
How  does  it  happen  that  high-school  teachers  have 
no  professional  status?  To  an  outsider  it  would 
appear  that  high-school  physics  teachers  are  badly 
priest-ridden,  since  they  have  a  syllabus  made  out 
for  them  prescribing  their  work  in  the  minutest 
detail,  and  they  are  themselves  the  only  persons 
who  know  how  great  a  misfit  this  requirement  is 
when  applied  to  the  high-school  pupil.  No  other 
department  is  so  throttled. 

Let  it  be  conceded  that  the  high-school  teacher's 
task  for  the  present  is  both  to  fit  for  college  and  at 
the  same  time  to  make  his  physics  teaching  as  good 
as  he  can  in  spite  of  college  requirements. 

The  best  plan  for  accomplishing  this  result  seems 
to  be  that  which  has  already  been  adopted  in  a  few 
schools,  namely,  to  give  first  a  course  in  physics 
planned  wholly  with  reference  to  the  needs  of  the 
pupils,  and  follow  this  by  a  brief  course  intended  to 
present  the  specific  things  which  will  be  likely  to 


HIGH-SCHOOL  COURSE  IN  PHYSICS       15 

appear  on  the  college  entrance  examination  papers. 
The  first  course  is  taken  by  every  pupil  who  can  get 
it  on  his  program.  The  second  is  taken  only  by 
those  who  are  intending  to  offer  physics  for  college 
entrance. 

I  cannot  agree  with  those  who  would  restrict 
physics  to  the  select  few  who  are  mathematically 
inclined  and  have  perhaps  a  technical  course  in 
view.  Physics  appears  to  me  to  be  a  subject  which 
all  pupils  need.  The  community  is  now  demanding 
it  for  their  children.  Teachers  of  other  subjects 
adapt  their  instruction  to  the  needs  of  the  majority 
of  their  pupils.  Physics  teachers  must  do  likewise. 

The  college  entrance  course  in  physics  is  too  meager 
in  general  information  and  in  the  applications  of 
physics  to  daily  experience.  If  the  high-school 
teacher  of  English  were  given  a  syllabus  which  di- 
rected the  teaching  of  grammar  alone  without  lit- 
erature, his  case  would  be  quite  parallel  to  that  of 
the  physics  teacher. 

The  course  needs  enrichment  by  the  addition  of 
large  measures  of  information.  Some  teachers  with 
excessive  allegiance  to  the  inductive  method  not  only 
refuse  to  give  information,  but  also  to  use  simple 
and  direct  means  of  illustration.  Why  should  the 
department  which  has  the  most  interesting  and 
most  valuable  information  —  information  which 
bears  directly  upon  the  common  life  and  happiness  of 
every  one  —  be  so  chary  of  giving  it  to  the  pupils  ? 
Other  departments  give  information  freely,  and  they 
take  a  strong  hold  upon  the  pupils;  but  some  teachers 
of  physics  appear  to  conduct  the  course  as  though 


16  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

they  would  say  to  a  pupil,  "You  may  have  only 
such  knowledge  as  you  can  find  out  for  yourself 
first  hand'9  Getting  knowledge  first  hand  is  not  an 
elementary  process.  Postgraduate  students  when 
sifted  down  to  the  few  candidates  for  the  doctor's 
degree  handle  it  with  indifferent  success.  No  in- 
dividual, however  expert,  has  by  the  arduous  labors 
of  a  lifetime  been  able  to  get  first  hand  any  con- 
siderable amount  of  knowledge.  If  we  teach  high- 
school  pupils  that  they  can  acquire  knowledge  first 
hand  without  appeal  to  authority,  we  are  deceiving 
them  and  we  are  in  danger  of  making  prigs  of  them. 
What  goes  on  in  a  high-school  laboratory  is  neither 
induction  nor  verification.  It  is  simply  an  attempt 
to  get  a  realizing  sense  of  things  by  coming  in  con- 
tact with  them.  Without  the  laboratory  the  pupils 
would  get  only  inklings;  with  the  laboratory  they 
get  some  appreciation  of  what  you  are  trying  to 
teach  them.  Without  the  laboratory  they  become 
dazed  and  soon  tire  of  the  subject ;  with  the  labora- 
tory properly  conducted  they  get  that  taste  of  physics 
which  makes  them  want  further  information  with  an 
eagerness  which  is  irresistible.  A  good  deal  of  in- 
formation in  the  field  of  physics  is  due  them,  and 
the  course  should  be  greatly  enriched  in  this  direc- 
tion. High-school  pupils  are  not  able  to  receive 
information  in  the  brief,  formal  statements  of  the 
text-books.  They  need  prolixity.  The  statements 
of  principles  need  to  be  very  much  amplified. 
Tyndall's  book  of  six  hundred  pages  on  Heat  is  more 
comprehensible  to  them  than  the  forty  or  fifty  pages 
of  the  high-school  text-books  on  the  same  subject. 


HIGH-SCHOOL  COURSE  IN  PHYSICS       17 

The  reading  of  articles  from  books  of  reference  and 
the  current  magazines  is  quite  as  necessary  in 
physics  as  in  English  or  history. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  to  decry  the  lecture  as  a 
means  of  teaching  physics.  This  is  probably  due 
to  the  prevailing  idea  that  one  must  not  give  infor- 
mation, but  must  leave  everything  for  the  pupil  to 
find  out  for  himself.  The  skillful  teacher,  however, 
conducts  his  course  so  that  no  restraint  needs  to  be 
put  upon  either  of  these  processes.  The  more  in- 
formation he  gives  the  more  he  stimulates  the  self- 
activity  of  the  pupil,  and  with  a  broader  understand- 
ing of  his  subject  the  pupil  works  more  intelligently 
at  his  appointed  tasks.  Davy,  Faraday,  Tyndall, 
and  hosts  of  others  have  made  good  use  of  lectures. 

Lectures  illustrated  by  many  experiments  skill- 
fully performed  and  skillfully  explained ;  illustrated 
by  lantern  slides,  charts,  and  blackboard  sketches; 
illustrated  by  constant  appeal  to  daily  experiences ; 
illustrated  by  graphic  word  pictures  and  the  use  of 
analogies,  —  such  lectures  in  the  hands  of  a  teacher 
of  science  furnish  not  only  information,  but  several 
other  essential  features  of  instruction  not  covered 
by  the  forty  quantitative  experiments. 

College  professors  in  physics  habitually  complain 
that  students  do  not  generalize.  They  may  have 
been  trained  to  experiment  accurately,  but  they  do 
not  relate  facts.  The  biographers  of  Sir  Humphry 
Davy  characterize  his  investigations  as  brilliant. 
He  reached  conclusions  in  incredibly  short  time. 
They  speak  of  his  wonderful  power  of  generalization 
and  call  it  "genius,"  "insight,"  "instinct."  They 


18  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

speak  of  his  constant  use  of  analogies,  of  his  fertile 
imagination.  These  traits  have  characterized  all  suc- 
cessful scientists  to  a  greater  degree  than  some  of 
us  like  to  admit.  It  cannot  be  the  business  of  cer- 
tain departments  to  encourage  these  things  and  of 
others  to  kill  them.  The  processes  of  education 
must  be  better  correlated  than  that. 

Even  if  all  high-school  pupils  were  being  trained 
for  original  research,  it  may  be  claimed  for  the 
lecture  that  it  has  equal  value  with  laboratory  work. 
Our  chief  difficulties  at  the  present  time,  however, 
arise  from  the  very  erroneous  idea  that  they  are 
being  so  trained.  In  pursuance  of  this  idea  a  por- 
tion of  the  college  course  in  physics  is  crowded  into 
the  high  school,  and  together  they  are  intended  to 
lead  directly  toward  graduate  courses  in  research. 
Since,  however,  few  will  follow  that  course  to  the 
end,  few  are  disposed  to  begin  it  in  the  high  school. 
There  is  no  good  reason  on  any  ground  why  methods 
of  research  should  be  linked  to  high-school  instruc- 
tion. It  would  be  a  sad  fate  if,  after  fighting  hard 
to  get  some  science  into  the  high  school ;  and  having 
secured  the  introduction  of  physics  very  generally 
throughout  the  country;  and  having  forced  the 
majority  of  pupils  out  of  physics,  contrary  to  their 
needs  and  desires,  so  that  you  might  fit  the  minority 
for  college;  and  having  introduced  into  this  col- 
lege preparatory  course,  at  the  suggestion  of  the 
college  professors,  a  kind  of  work  so  ill  adapted  to 
the  high-school  pupil  that  it  does  not  even  fit  him 
for  college,  you  should  at  last  be  discredited  as  edu- 
cators and  some  other  subject  be  put  in  the  place  for- 


HIGH-SCHOOL  COURSE  IN   PHYSICS        19 

felted  by  physics.  Yet  this,  we  hear  on  every  hand, 
is  upon  us  unless  some  radical  change  occurs  soon. 

The  kind  of  physics  which  enabled  us  to  win  the 
fight  for  introduction  into  the  high-school  course 
twenty  years  ago  was  that  which  was  well  repre- 
sented by  the  first  edition  of  Gage's  Elements.  For 
fifteen  years  that  sort  of  physics  made  exceedingly 
good  progress  in  the  high  schools.  It  undoubtedly 
had  much  to  do  with  bringing  on  public  interest  in 
scientific  matters.  But  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
public  interest  in  physics  is  still  on  the  increase,  we 
have,  inside  the  schools,  turned  the  tide  against 
physics  and  are  slowly  driving  the  pupils  from  the 
subject.  I  cannot  believe  that  the  public,  whose 
interest  in  the  schools  is  also  on  the  increase,  will 
long  permit  this  state  of  affairs  to  exist. 

I  believe  that  high-school  physics  should  be  the 
study  of  phenomena,  and  physical  principles  should 
be  taught  solely  for  the  purpose  of  explaining  the 
phenomena.  Learning  principles  should  not  be 
the  end  of  any  study.  Formulas,  definitions,  and 
laws  are  misplaced  and  misused.  They  do  not  be- 
long at  the  beginning,  but  at  the  end  of  the  subject. 
They  are  the  crystallized  forms  of  statement  useful 
to  engineers  and  others  who  have  digested  the  prin- 
ciples and  need  them  in  that  shape  for  ready  refer- 
ence. They  are  also  useful  for  those  who  are  going 
up  for  examinations,  for  which  purpose  they  are 
best  crammed  the  night  before.  It  would  be  a  waste 
of  energy  to  carry  them  throughout  the  course. 
The  text-book  should  be  more  than  a  dictionary  of 
physical  principles  and  a  glossary  of  physical  terms. 


20  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

It  should  be  a  book  of  information  written  in  a 
readable  style.  It  will  serve  its  purpose  better  if 
it  leaves  all  descriptions  of  experiments  and  prob- 
lems to  the  laboratory  manual.  The  criticism, 
therefore,  that  a  text-book  is  not  sufficiently  quan- 
titative or  does  not  pursue  the  induction  method 
should  be  irrelevant.  These  things  belong  to  the 
laboratory  manual. 

The  forty  quantitative  experiments  can  be  very 
much  abridged  and  lose  nothing  either  in  educa- 
tional value  or  in  effective  preparation  for  college. 
Quantitative  problems  upon  data  given  might  very 
well  take  the  place  of  many  of  them.  These  could 
be  worked  out  at  home  just  as  the  problems  in 
algebra  are.  If  physics  is  to  hold  its  own  among  the 
other  high-school  studies,  more  home  work  must  be 
devised  for  it  and  it  must  absorb  more  of  the  daily 
attention  of  the  pupil.  When  physics  is  made  easy 
and  interesting,  there  is  often  a  large  compensation 
in  voluntary  outside  effort.  Unless  we  are  sure 
that  we  are  sufficiently  wise  doctors  in  education  to 
safely  prescribe  a  dietary  distasteful  to  the  pupils, 
it  would  seem  to  be  better  to  give  them  bread  than  a 
stone,  because  their  appetites  demand  it.  They  re- 
ceive more,  they  work  over  it  more  diligently,  and 
they  digest  it  better.  We  might  let  them  have 
more  of  electricity  and  not  compel  them  to  take  so 
much  of  mechanics.  They  might  spend  less  time  on 
electrical  measurements  and  none  at  all  on  measure- 
ments from  a  battery  cell.  They  might  omit  the 
calibration  of  a  thermometer  and  "double  weigh- 
ing" with  the  balance. 


HIGH-SCHOOL  COURSE  IN  PHYSICS       21 

A  quantitative  experiment  or  problem  should  be 
the  goal  toward  which  several  qualitative  experi- 
ments, or  perhaps  personal  experiences,  point.  To 
illustrate :  The  kitchen  stove  cools  off  more  quickly 
than  the  hot-water  tank.  A  teaspoon  taken  out 
of  a  cup  of  tea  cools  quickly,  but  a  teaspoonful  of 
tea  does  not  cool  quickly.  The  sand  on  the  sea- 
shore both  heats  more  quickly  and  cools  more 
quickly  than  the  water  in  the  sea.  A  few  teaspoons 
taken  out  of  hot  water  and  put  into  cold  water  will 
convey  very  much  less  heat  than  an  equal  weight 
of  the  hot  water  added  to  the  cold  water.  Bodies  of 
water  modify  climate  by  giving  out  large  stores 
of  heat  in  cold  weather  and  absorbing  larg,  stores 
of  heat  in  hot  weather.  Thus  it  happens  that  is- 
lands in  the  sea  and  lakes  on  the  mainland  have 
equable  climates.  High-school  pupils  are  familiar 
with  these  facts,  but  they  have  not  related  them. 
When  they  have  been  led  to  do  this  it  adds  much  to 
their  appreciation  of  the  whole  matter  to  determine 
the  specific  heat  of  some  substance  by  a  quantita- 
tive experiment ;  and,  if  the  quantitative  experiment 
is  allowed,  say,  one-quarter  of  the  time  spent  in  the 
study  of  specific  heat,  it  may  be  the  cream  of  the 
whole  matter,  but  if  it  is  the  only  thing  taught 
under  specific  heat,  it  is  pretty  nearly  valueless. 

High-school  pupils  come  to  the  study  of  physics 
with  a  large  number  of  experiences  which  bear  upon 
the  subject,  but  their  experiences  have  been  largely 
of  the  unconscious  type.  If  therefore  "science  is 
merely  organized  common  sense,"  the  teacher  must 
call  up  these  experiences  and  organize  them.  In  this 


22  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

matter  the  teacher  who  deals  with  country  pupils 
is  thought  to  have  the  advantage,  since  country 
pupils  are  reputed  to  have  had  more  experiences 
in  the  line  of  physics ;  but  let  us  consider  what  the 
city  has  to  offer. 

A  well-equipped  city  school  building  contains 
many  applications  of  physical  principles : 

The  furnace  and  boiler. 

Direct  and  indirect  heating  systems. 

Ventilation. 

Automatic  control  of  temperature. 

Steam  used  for  power. 

Hydraulic  and  electric  elevators. 

The  plumbing  of  the  building. 

Filters. 

The  lighting  of  the  building. 

Electric  motors. 

Electric  bells, -telephones,  and  clocks. 

The  piano,  illustrating  the  various  principles  of 
sound. 

A  great  variety  of  machines  which  are  superior  to 
the  laboratory  apparatus  for  purposes  of  instruction. 

Some  pupils  have  observed  these  things  and 
thought  much  about  them,  others  have  noticed  them 
but  thought  little  about  them,  and  still  others  have 
neither  noticed  nor  thought  of  them.  Excursions 
about  the  building  will  enable  the  teacher  to  supply 
to  all  some  of  the  necessary  experiences  upon  which 
to  found  his  instruction,  which  will  take  the  form  of 
correlating  and  interpreting  these  experiences  in  the 
light  of  physical  principles. 

The  home,   and  the  city  outside  of  the  school 


HIGH-SCHOOL  COURSE  IN  PHYSICS       23 

building,  are  full  of  the  applications  of  physics. 
The  citizen  must  square  his  life  according  to  physical 
principles  -whether  he  wishes  to  or  not.  It  is  our 
privilege  and  duty  to  conduct  this  study  so  as  to 
enable  him  in  some  measure  to  make  his  life  more 
peaceful  and  more  successful. 


Ill 

MODERN  TREND  OF  PHYSICS  AND 
CHEMISTRY  TEACHING1 

THE  excellent  paper  on  College  Entrance  Ex- 
aminations 2  which  was  read  at  your  meeting  one 
month  ago  contains  one  suggestion  which  I  heartily 
adopt  as  the  central  theme  of  this  paper.  It  is 
more  descriptive  and  less  mathematical  physics  and 
(I  may  add)  chemistry. 

The  history  of  physics  teaching  in  secondary 
schools  for  the  past  25  years  naturally  divides  itself 
into  two  periods.  During  the  first  13  years  of  this 
period  physics  was  taught  without  help  or  hindrance 
from  the  colleges,  and  it  progressed  against  fearful 
odds  until  24  per  cent  of  all  secondary  school  pupils 
were  studying  the  subject ;  during  the  last  12  years 
the  colleges  have  dominated  the  physics  teaching  in 
the  secondary  schools  through  their  syllabi,  inter- 
preted and  enforced  by  their  examinations,  and  it 
has  declined  until  the  number  of  pupils  in  physics 
has  been  reduced  to  10  per  cent.  Twelve  years  ago 
24  per  cent  of  the  students  selected  physics  voluntar- 
ily ;  now  a  considerable  portion  of  the  10  per  cent 
study  it  only  by  compulsion. 

1  Paper  read  at  meeting  of  New  York  Schoolmasters  Association, 
December  9,  1905. 

2  By  Mr.  Wilson  Farrand.     See  Educational  Review,  January,  1906. 

24 


MODERN  TREND  OF  PHYSICS  25 

The  kind  of  physics  which  was  taught  during  the 
first  period  is  well  represented  in  the  earlier  editions 
of  Gage's  and  A  very 's  text-books.  It  was  descrip- 
tive of  matter  of  universal  interest  and  abundantly 
illustrated  by  experiments  exceedingly  well  adapted 
to  make  the  subject  real.  I  have  been  collecting 
testimony  for  the  past  18  years  from  persons  all 
over  the  country  who  studied  physics  then,  and  I 
find  that  the  general  feeling  is  that  it  was  both  in- 
teresting and  profitable.  Such  testimony  has  been 
steadily  changing  into  adverse  criticism  of  the 
physics  teaching  of  the  last  12  years. 

In  recent  years  physics  teaching  in  the  colleges 
also  has  been  growing  more  unsatisfactory  to  gen- 
eral students.  It  is  becoming  more  and  more  de- 
ficient in  both  the  humanitarian  and  the  practical 
elements.  It  does  little  for  general  culture  and  less 
for  common  sense.  It  is  good  preparation  for  neither 
investigators  nor  engineers,  and  least  of  all  for  the 
ordinary  citizen.  In  recent  times  college  men  have 
set  out  to  know  only  one  thing,  and  have  omitted  to 
conquer  a  sufficient  field  of  related  knowledge  to 
understand  any  one  thing  well  enough  to  teach  it. 
We  have  witnessed  the  attempt  to  force  the  worst 
features  of  college  instruction  upon  the  secondary 
schools,  and  we  have  in  many  cases  seen  young  men 
come  directly  from  such  a  regime  of  college  physics 
to  teach  in  our  secondary  schools.  They  confine 
themselves  to  that  disjointed  skeleton  of  dry  bones, 
the  forty  quantitative  experiments.  They  use  them 
as  simply  isolated,  detached  mathematical  problems. 
They  make  no  logical  connections.  They  know 


26  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

little  of  an  articulate  whole.  They  know  nothing 
of  practical  applications  of  physical  principles,  and 
they  know  nothing  of  the  correlations  of  physics 
and  chemistry  with  botany,  zoology,  physiology, 
geology,  geography,  and  the  like.  Of  course  they 
cannot  clothe  their  skeleton  of  forty  experiments 
with  symmetry  and  beauty,  for  they  have  never 
been  taught  any  such  thing  in  physics.  They  deal 
in  academic  discussions  about  per  cents  of  error. 
They  present  nothing  as  organized  common  sense, 
which  was  Huxley's  idea  of  science.  It  is  not  be- 
cause these  college  entrance  requirements  are  dif- 
ficult, but  because  they  are  a  misfit,  that  they  are 
uninteresting ;  and  the  pupils  have  the  good  sense  to 
dislike  them.  Until  the  makers  of  the  physics 
syllabus  exhibit  a  greater  knowledge  of  the  science 
of  teaching,  we  may  conclude  that  the  desires  of 
the  great  majority  of  high-school  pupils  furnish  us 
the  safest  guide  to  what  is  pedagogically  correct. 
As  one  of  your  members  said  here  last  month : 

"These  college  entrance  requirements  have  been  shaped  by 
specialists  whose  interest  has  been  in  the  subject  rather  than  in 
the  student." 

They  do  not  understand  high-school  pupils.  How 
can  they  understand  what  will  fit  them  for  college  ? 
The  chief  trouble  with  high-school  pupils  when  they 
pass  into  college  is  not  that  they  are  deficient  in 
mathematics  or  in  the  art  of  making  accurate 
measurements,  but  that  they  do  not  generalize, 
and  the  work  prescribed  is  not  calculated  to  help 
them  learn  how  to  do  so.  The  claim  has  been  put 


MODERN  TREND  OF  PHYSICS  27 

forth  by  certain  teachers  that  theirs  is  a  "good  stiff 
course  in  physics,"  that  it  is  equivalent  to  Greek 
forsooth,  and  every  other  course  has  been  charac- 
terized by  opprobrious  titles.  Their  favorite  expres- 
sion of  contempt  is  "sugar-coating  the  pill"  and  the 
favorite  expression  of  satisfaction  with  their  own 
work  is  that  they  are  giving  "a  self-respecting  course 
in  physics."  Now  I  cannot  discover  why  their  course 
should  be  called  "good"  or  "stiff"  or  even  "physics." 
(One  professor  of  mathematics  says  he  is  willing  to 
accept  it  as  algebra  and  geometry.)  I  presume  no 
teacher  ever  has  or  ever  will  get  what  may  properly 
be  called  "good  work"  from  a  student  except  by  the 
force  of  a  "compelling  interest."  Let  us  consider 
what  there  is  in  these  experiments  which  a  reason- 
able high-school  pupil  could  object  to. 

A  considerable  number  of  them  are  clumsy,  tedious 
ways  of  getting  results  which  the  pupils  know  they 
can  get  by  more  direct  means.  A  great  ado  is  made 
about  getting  the  specific  gravity  of  wood.  All 
wood  is  heavier  than  water,  but  they  set  out  to  prove 
that  a  certain  block  is  half  as  heavy  as  water.  It 
floats  on  water  for  the  same  reason  that  an  empty 
bottle  floats.  If  we  let  the  water  enter  and  drive 
out  the  air,  both  sink.  It  makes  a  difference  whether 
the  wood  comes  from  inland  or  seashore ;  from  the 
north  side  of  a  hill  or  the  south  side ;  whether  it  is 
green  or  dry  or  kiln-dried ;  whether  it  is  summer  or 
winter.  In  winter  our  closet  doors  shrink  so  that 
we  can  poke  our  fingers  through.  In  summer  they 
swell  so  that  we  cannot  shut  them.  The  teachers  try 
to  coat  the  block  of  wood  with  paraffin  so  that  air 


28  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

shall  not  get  out  nor  water  get  in.  No  one  has  yet 
learned  how  to  keep  wood  from  shrinking  and 
swelling.  The  pupils,  who  are  often  wiser  than 
doctors  of  philosophy,  know  that  their  teachers  are 
making  a  pretense  of  getting  the  specific  gravity 
of  this  block  of  wood  merely  for  the  sake  of  an 
academic  discussion.  Now  note  how  the  instructors 
proceed.  They  simply  want  the  weight  and  the  vol- 
ume of  that  block.  The  weight  is  procured  directly, 
but  the  volume,  which  might  be  procured  directly  by 
measuring  a  regular-shaped  block,  is  thought  to  be 
more  accurately  found  by  measuring  the  amount 
of  water  which  it  will  displace.  And  instead  of 
sticking  a  pin  into  it  and  thrusting  it  down  into  a 
vessel  full  of  water  and  measuring  the  overflow, 
they  tie  a  lead  sinker  to  it  so  as  to  introduce  more 
mathematics  into  the  problem.  They  spend  weeks 
finding  the  specific  gravity  of  various  things  by 
various  methods;  finding  the  breaking  strength  of 
a  wire ;  comparing  wires  in  breaking  tests ;  finding 
how  much  a  wire  will  stretch ;  bending  laths  by  vary- 
ing loads;  bending  laths  of  varying  dimensions; 
twisting  laths  —  all  to  no  purpose.  Such  procedure 
Jias  no  connection  with  anything  else  either  in  the 
course  or  out  of  it.  Nearly  the  whole  of  the  first 
half-year  is  spent  on  this  work  which  is  related  to 
nothing.  Meanwhile  the  students  are  eager  to  get 
into  electricity,  but  when  at  last  they  reach  that  sub- 
ject they  are  cruelly  disappointed  because  everything 
that  has  a  practical  bearing  is  carefully  eliminated 
and  academic  discussions  are  substituted  about 
things  never  met  outside  the  school  laboratory.  The 


MODERN  TREND  OF  PHYSICS  29 

experiments  in  electricity  are  such  as  no  electrical 
engineer  would  have  any  patience  with. 

Teachers  who  watch  every  opportunity  to  nip  in 
the  bud  any  symptom  of  interest  or  enthusiasm  se- 
lect the  coefficient  of  expansion  of  iron  as  a  subject 
worthy  of  a  whole  week's  study.  The  sole  aim  of 
the  work  is  to  have  the  pupils  determine  whether  a 
rod  of  iron  will  expand  by  one  twelve-millionth  part 
of  its  length  for  one  degree  rise  in  temperature. 
They  first  consider  at  some  length  the  sources  of 
error,  and  discuss  the  efficiency  of  the  apparatus. 
The  whole  rod  must  be  brought  to  a  uniform  tem- 
perature. It  must  therefore  be  surrounded  by  a 
hot- water  or  steam  jacket.  The  thermometer  must 
be  placed  in  such  a  position  as  to  get  the  true  tem- 
perature of  the  rod  itself.  There  must  be  some 
sort  of  multiplying  apparatus  to  measure  such  slight 
increments  of  length,  and  this  will  introduce  some 
mathematics  which  will  exercise  a  wholesome  re- 
straint upon  enthusiasm.  The  experiment  is  per- 
formed and  the  results  are  discussed  again  with 
reference  to  sources  of  error.  The  class  average  is 
taken  and  compared  with  standard  figures,  etc., 
etc.  Now  if  that  is  the  end  of  the  whole  matter  (as 
it  very  often  is)  it  seems  to  me  not  worth  while.  It 
is  not  "stiff."  It  is  stupid.  The  pupils  are  not 
complaining  of  hard  work,  they  are  objecting  to 
stupid  work.  They  are  capable,  and  willing  to  do 
much  harder  work  if  it  appeals  to  them  as  worth 
while. 

Suppose  now  we  treat  the  expansion  of  iron  by 
first  performing  some  of  the  many  simple,  in- 


30  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

genious,  and  beautiful  experiments  which  illustrate 
it.  Let  some  of  these  be  lecture  experiments  and 
some  individual  laboratory  experiments.  Let  the 
question  arise  what  will  happen  to  a  steam  pipe 
1000  feet  long  when  the  engineer  puts  on  steam 
and  raises  its  temperature  from,  say,  60°  to  212°. 
It  will  lengthen  about  one  foot.  The  class  will  be 
interested  in  calculating  that  from  data  given  in 
the  text-book,  and  certain  pupils  will  want  to  verify 
the  data  by  a  quantitative  experiment  on  the 
coefficient  of  expansion.  A  few  optional  experi- 
ments are  always  needed  to  give  to  the  brightest 
pupils  in  order  to  keep  the  class  abreast.  The 
whole  class  want  to  go  on  an  excursion  about  the 
building  to  see  what  provision  is  made  for  this  ex- 
pansion of  the  steam  pipes  and  hot- water  pipes. 
They  want  to  know  what  provision  is  made  for  the 
expansion  of  the  iron  work  of  the  Brooklyn  Bridge 
between  winter  and  summer.  And  they  would  be 
glad  to  calculate  how  much  that  expansion  might 
be;  how  much  a  wagon  tire  5  feet  in  diameter  is 
stretched  by  heating  it  500°  for  purposes  of  setting 
it.  Illustrations  of  this  sort  can  be  multiplied  until 
a  week  is  thought  by  the  class  to  be  all  too  short  for 
the  subject. 

I  do  not  believe  that  high-school  pupils  are  lack- 
ing in  either  willingness  to  work  or  ability  to  work. 
They  are  patient  sufferers  with  what  they  know  to 
be  poor  teaching. 

Secondary  schools  are  not  dependent  upon  the 
colleges.  They  depend  directly  upon  the  public, 
and  the  colleges  are  equally  dependent  upon  the 


MODERN  TREND  OF  PHYSICS  31 

public.  Certainly  no  subjects  are  nearer  to  the 
public  mind  than  physics  and  chemistry,  and  pub- 
lic sentiment  will  in  time  settle  these  questions  for 
both  colleges  and  secondary  schools.  It  will  un- 
doubtedly determine  that  the  secondary  schools 
shall  teach  such  physics  as  all  girls  and  boys  in  the 
schools  may  pursue  with  profit  to  themselves, 
(Some  teachers  are  now  congratulating  themselves 
that  they  have  crowded  out  of  physics  the  great 
majority  and  have  left  only  the  mathematical  elect, 
and  some  teachers  of  physics  avow  it  to  be  their 
purpose  to  kill  enthusiasm  wherever  they  find  it.) 
Public  sentiment  will  further  determine  that  the 
colleges  shall  receive  any  pupil  who  has  been  taught 
according  to  his  own  needs,  and  that  the  colleges 
shall  learn  how  to  continue  his  instruction  accord- 
ing to  his  own  needs.  I  presume  that  in  both  the 
secondary  school  and  the  undergraduate  college, 
physics  will  in  time  be  humanized.  It  will  be 
taught  with  reference  to  its  practical  applications, 
not  solely  for  commercial  reasons,  but  also  because 
of  its  universal  human  interests. 

As  indicating  the  modern  trend  of  thought  on 
this  subject,  I  will  present  numerous  quotations 
from  various  writers  and  speakers. 

Professor  Hall  of  Harvard  is  doing  us  the  great 
service  of  reproducing  in  the  Educational  Review 
considerable  portions  of  the  report  of  Professor  Karl 
Fischer  of  Munich  on  his  studies  of  the  prevailing 
condition  of  instruction  in  physics  and  chemistry 
in  the  secondary  schools  of  various  countries.  The 
articles  contain  much  of  what  appears  to  be  a  con- 


32  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

sensus    of    opinion    from    many    countries.     They 
abound  in  such  phrases  as  these  : 

"Mathematical  developments  [in  physics]  are  to  be  avoided 
.  .  .  more  stress  is  to  be  laid  on  the  spirit  of  the  method  than  on 
technical  details  .  .  .  the  calculations  kept  as  simple  as  possible, 
should  be  based  on  actual  relations.  .  .  .  Numerical  problems,  in 
and  for  themselves  of  little  profit,  should  not  be  given  in  greater 
number  than  is  necessary  to  insure  the  insight  of  the  pupils  into 
the  relations  exemplified  in  the  problems.  .  .  .  The  striving  after 
too  great  precision  is  a  mistake  .  .  .  demonstration  instruction 
should  be  made  as  practical  as  possible  .  .  .  theories  without  in- 
terest, calculations  which  have  nothing  to  do  with  realities,  are  to 
be  dropped.  .  .  .  The  object  is  not  to  make  of  the  pupils  accom- 
plished physicists  but  to  make  them  acquainted  with  the  great 
laws  of  nature  and  to  lead  them  to  give  account  to  themselves 
of  the  operations  which  they  see  going  on  about  them.  .  .  .  Offi- 
cial programs  prescribe  too  exactly  the  matter  to  be  taught." 

Professor  H.  E.  Clifford,  of  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology,  said  a  few  months  ago 
before  the  Eastern  Association  of  Physics  Teachers : 

"In  any  course  of  physics  the  fundamental  instruction  should 
be  by  classroom  work  which  should  be  made  more  vital  by  the 
laboratory.  The  classroom  comes  first  in  usefulness  and 
efficiency  in  instilling  the  fundamental  ideas,  and  the  laboratory 
second.  A  well-illustrated  course  of  lectures  is  more  valuable 
than  a  well-equipped  laboratory.  The  laboratory  work  should 
be  qualitative,  not  quantitative.  It  should  aim  at  accuracy  in 
observation,  not  accuracy  in  measurement.  The  explanation  of 
everyday  phenomena  is  the  true  function  of  high-school  physics." 

Professor  W.  S.  Franklin,  of  Lehigh  University, 
one  of  the  examiners  in  physics  for  the  College  En- 
trance Board,  said  recently  at  a  meeting  of  the 
New  Jersey  State  Teachers'  Association : 


MODERN  TREND  OF  PHYSICS  33 

"It  is  not  important  that  high-school  physics  should  be 
quantitative  or  mathematical,  it  should  be  phenomenology." 

President  Stanley  Hall,  as  quoted  by  Professor 
Charles  Baskerville  to  the  New  York  Chemistry 
Teachers'  Club : 

"The  finest  expression  on  the  face  of  a  child  seems  to  me  to 
be  that  of  open-eyed  and  often  open-mouthed  curiosity  and 
wonder.  The  objects  of  nature  charm  and  entrance  the  soul, 
which  for  the  moment  becomes  almost  one  with  her.  .  .  . 
This  divinest  thing  in  childhood,  which  only  bad  school  methods 
can  kill,  which  prompts  the  primeval  experiments  of  infants  in 
learning  to  use  their  senses,  limbs,  and  minds  upon  nature,  is 
the  root  of  the  spirit  of  research,  which  explores,  pries,  inquires, 
so  persistently,  and  often  so  destructively  in  older  children, 
and  comes  to  full  maturity  in  the  investigator  behind  the  tele- 
scope or  microscope,  in  the  laboratory,  seminary,  library,  or  on 
exploring  expeditions." 

To  which  Professor  Baskerville  adds  : 

"Each  one  of  us  has  done  his  little  research  in  college  or 
university,  and  knows  that  it  was  but  an  extension  of  his  ex- 
perience as  a  boy.  .  .  .  Having  once  breathed  that  fragrance 
of  the  new,  having  once  been  allowed  to  pluck  a  seed  from  the 
unknown  storeroom  of  the  Almighty,  having  once  nursed  it 
into  a  flower,  however  beautiful  or  unattractive,  I  fail  to  see 
how  one,  by  the  very  fever  of  the  thing,  could  look  on  that  one 
creation  and  not  be  swept  along  by  the  desire  to  make  a  garden 
of  such  joys,  for  each  birth  is  a  happiness,  not  solely  for  selfish 
pleasure,  but  that  the  world  might  also  look  in  and  rejoice." 

Professor  Louis  Sherman  Davis,  Indiana  Uni- 
versity, says : 

"Interest  in  a  science  is  proportioned  to  the  immediate  bear- 
ing which  its  subject-matter  has  upon  the  life  of  the  student. 
Hence  the  matter  and  processes  with  which  chemistry  deals 
should  touch  the  student's  life  as  closely  as  possible." 


34  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

In  accordance  with  this  view  he  arranged  his 
text-book  so  as  to  teach  chemical  principles  in 
their  relationship  to  industrial  purposes,  such  as 
preparation  of  iron  and  steel,  explosives,  artificial 
ice,  illuminating  gas,  baking  powder,  petroleum, 
butter,  soap,  sugar,  glass,  paints,  etc. 

Professor  C.  R.  Mann,  University  of  Chicago,  in 
School  Science  and  Mathematics,  October,  November, 
and  December,  1905 : 

"If  an  instructor  has  once  clearly  grasped  the  fact  that  the 
so-called  principles  and  laws  of  science  derive  their  final  accu- 
racy from  our  powers  of  abstraction,  can  he  confine  the  stu- 
dent's attention  so  assiduously  as  is  often  done  to  a  per  cent 
and  half  a  per  cent  of  error?  Far  be  it  from  us  to  decry  the 
importance  —  nay,  the  vital  necessity  —  of  such  considerations 
of  accuracy  in  advanced  research  work.  But  do  we  not  some- 
times forget  that  the  high-school  pupil  is  not  a  research  spe- 
cialist, and  that  he  is  as  a  rule  not  enamored  of  great  accuracy  ? 
Do  we  not  then  develop  rather  his  manual  dexterity  than  his 
reason  and  his  imagination  ?  ...  do  we  not  often  fail  to  make 
use  of  the  vast  fund  of  physical  experiences  which  every  one 
necessarily  possesses  simply  because  he  has  lived  on  this  planet  ? 
Yet  we  often  reject  in  whole  or  in  part  this  fund  of  real  experi- 
ence and  expect  to  develop  a  system  that  shall  be  comprehensive 
and  exact  on  the  basis  of  comparatively  few  rather  clumsy  stock 
experiments  with  half  a  hundred  percentages  of  error  thrown  in 
for  good  measure. 

"But  the  real  vitality  of  physics  is  not  in  these  external 
signs  and  symbols,  but  rather  in  the  human  part  —  the  scientific 
imagination ;  and  any  student  who  leaves  his  physics  class  for 
the  last  time  without  ever  having  felt  an  inspiration  to  ponder 
over  and  try  to  form  images  of  the  operations  of  the  world 
forces  amongst  which  he  lives,  has  been  filled  with  husks  and 
empty  forms  and  dwarfed  in  soul  and  mental  growth.  .  .  . 
When  we  'fix*  [physical  laws]  into  a  system  of  dogma,  de- 
velop them  into  a  logically  perfect  series,  and  then  dole  them 


MODERN  TREND  OF  PHYSICS  35 

out  to  growing,  living,  thirsty  souls  ...  we  are  but  exhibiting 
to  them  a  veritable  'physical  mummy'  and  should  not  be  sur- 
prised if  the  children  turn  from  it  chilled  with  indifference  rather 
than  warmed  with  enthusiasm. 

"He  [the  student]  usually  has  a  large  amount  of  qualitative 
personal  experience  with  the  subject-matter  of  science,  and  can 
generally  obtain  a  large  store  of  personally  observed  facts  in 
the  routine  of  his  daily  life.  ...  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that 
children  trained  to  observe  carefully  and  to  reason  from  these 
observations  clearly  and  in  freedom,  remember  both  the  facts 
and  the  conclusions  better  than  if  they  are  taught  the  conclu- 
sions as  a  matter  of  authority.  Though  it  may  seem  para- 
doxical, it  is  yet  true,  that  if  we  make  it  our  aim  to  teach  the 
facts  and  principles  of  science,  we  fail;  but  if  we  have  as  our 
sole  purpose  the  development  in  the  children  of  this  scientific 
attitude,  they  not  only  acquire  that  most  valuable  possession, 
but  also  learn  the  principles  better.  Moreover,  by  the  adoption 
of  this  aim,  the  sciences  become  truly  correlated.  ...  A 
vast  advance  over  the  methods  at  present  in  vogue  in  science 
teaching  could  be  made  if  each  teacher  would  try  to  present 
his  subject  more  from  the  historical  and  concrete  side  and  less 
in  the  purely  logical  and  abstract  one  —  if  he  would  try  to  con- 
nect the  history  of  his  special  subject  with  the  grander  general 
history  of  thought  —  and  of  human  activity. 

"We  need  to  get  closer  to  Nature  and  to  absorb  the  warmth 
of  the  greater  human  life  about  us.  We  do  not  need  new  and 
more  ingenious  apparatus  in  our  laboratories ;  nor  yet  novel  and 
elegant  methods  of  demonstrating  this  or  that  principle;  but 
greater  outlook  and  wider  sympathies  —  in  a  word,  less  impedi- 
menta and  more  human  life." 

Professor  Mann  has  written  a  high-school  text- 
book of  physics  "to  meet,"  as  he  says,  "the  new 
demand  that  has  been  made  on  the  subject  by  the 
general  public.  .  .  .  The  aim  has  been  to  show  the 
student  that  a  knowledge  of  physics  enables  him  to 
answer  many  of  the  questions  over  which  he  has 


36  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

puzzled  long  in  vain."  He  aims,  as  he  says,  to 
"  appeal  to  students  on  the  humanistic  side."  The 
numerical  examples  are  free  from  mathematical  in- 
tricacies, and  are  based  largely  on  the  practical 
problems  of  everyday  life.  "  The  latest  discoveries 
and  theories  in  science  are  presented,  both  because 
young  people  are  known  to  be  interested  in  them 
and  because  they  serve  as  nothing  else  can  to  develop 
the  scientific  imagination.  .  .  .  The  mastery  of 
principles  and  methods  in  scientific  study  depends 
on  the  awakening  of  interest  and  self-activity  more 
than  any  one  thing." 

Before  the  New  England  Association  of  Chemistry 
Teachers  Professor  F.  L.  Bardwell,  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Institute  of  Technology,  said  : 

"Instruction  [in  chemistry]  should  be  along  qualitative  lines. 
It  may  be  wise  to  introduce  some  quantitative  work,  but  he 
who  loses  sight  of  the  qualitative  side  of  quantitative  experimen- 
tation loses  sight  of  rare  beauties  in  Natural  Science  and  causes 
in  his  pupils  the  sort  of  distorted  mental  vision  which  cannot  see 
beyond  the  cross  hairs  of  a  telescope  or  discern  any  phenomena 
which  are  not  connected  with  the  swing  of  the  pointer  of  a  bal- 
ance .  .  .  don't  forget  the  one  essential  thing  in  laboratory 
work  —  observation,  which  must  be  qualitative  before  it  is 
quantitative  ...  let  laboratory  experimentation  be  employed 
to  drill  the  pupils  in  careful  manipulation,  not  necessarily  highly 
refined  and  accurate  measurements  —  and  then  above  all  in 
observation  and  inference.  Pupils  should  be  encouraged  to 
discover  principles  —  to  generalize ;  and  it  is  well  to  arrange 
certain  experiments  which  are  not  complicated  and  which  have 
not  been  preceded  by  special  instruction  so  that  the  beginner 
may  have  opportunity  to  generalize  without  prejudice." 

Professor  F.  W.  Clarke,  in  Science,  October  23, 
1903,  says : 


MODERN  TREND  OF  PHYSICS  37 

"The  man  who  could  not  see  the  forest  because  of  the  trees 
was  a  good  type  of  that  scholarship  which  never  rises  above  petty 
details.  It  may  compile  encyclopedias,  but  it  cannot  generalize." 

Some  one  has  said  : 

"Avoid  formulas.  Most  high-school  pupils  work  with  formu- 
las in  a  very  mechanical  way  and  fail  to  get  the  rationale  of  the 
matter.  It  is  only  to  mature  minds  that  formulas  represent 
the  gist  of  the  whole  matter." 

Professor  H.  H.  Goddard,  State  Normal  School, 
Oshkosh,  Wis.,  School  Science  and  Mathematics, 
October,  1905: 

"  A  great  company  of  the  great  men  of  science  is  open  to 
our  acquaintance  among  the  leaders  and  investigators  of  the 
past.  .  .  .  Their  names  cannot  fail  to  excite  the  wonder  and 
admiration  of  all  who  have  followed  the  achievements  of  science 
and  can  be  moved  by  the  attainments  of  the  human  mind.  .  .  . 
These  men  live  in  the  triumphs  of  their  investigations  into  the 
mysteries  of  science  and  in  the  heritage  they  have  left  us  from 
the  secrets  of  truth.  .  .  .  Every  student  of  science  should  learn 
something  of  the  great  difficulties  which  have  been  overcome 
in  the  progress  of  this  line  of  study.  .  .  .  The  story  should  be 
known  of  how  Scheele  subjected  himself  to  deprivation  and 
even  poverty  in  order  that  he  might  give  his  time  and  talent  to 
scientific  discovery.  .  .  .  The  story  of  Roger  Bacon  should  be 
told,  —  of  his  splendid  talent,  of  his  untiring  efforts  to  illumi- 
nate the  darkness  and  ignorance  of  his  time  by  the  searchlight 
of  truth,  and  of  the  persecutions  which  he  endured  as  a  result. 
.  .  .  The  lessons  of  self-sacrifice  and  of  loyalty  to  truth  which 
are  shown  by  these  and  many  others  are  of  great  educational 
value.  The  opportunity  for  such  lessons  can  scarcely  be  ex- 
celled in  any  other  line  of  study  outside  of  the  field  of  science. 
And  such  lessons  are  especially  needed  in  these  days  of  com- 
mercialism and  self-aggrandizement,  when  it  is  so  common  to 
associate  successful  careers  only  with  the  accumulation  of 
wealth. 


38  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

"What  we  as  teachers  can  do  is  to  acquaint  our  students 
with  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  subject,  let  them  see  a 
few  of  the  interesting  applications  of  these,  and  then  not  neg- 
lect to  inspire  them  with  the  splendid  story  of  the  growth  and 
development  of  the  science,  how  it  has  moved  forward  little  by 
little,  now  retarded  by  error,  but  again  pushing  forward  with 
tremendous  bounds  under  the  guidance  of  truth,  until  with  the 
dawn  of  the  present  century  its  achievements  are  the  wonder 
of  the  world." 

Professor  Sedgwick,  on  Physiology,  in  Science, 
September  18,  1903  (his  words  may  very  well  be 
applied  to  physics  and  chemistry) : 

"Not  only  in  childhood  but  throughout  life  we  do  not  care 
greatly  about  the  parts  of  a  machine  unless  we  know  or  can 
guess  their  use.  The  instruction  in  physiology  should  aim  at 
the  outlines  of  the  more  important  functions.  .  .  .  The  pupil 
should  understand  that  the  heart  is  a  force  pump,  but  it  is  not 
necessary  that  he  should  understand  the  exact  structure  or 
mechanism  of  the  auriculo- ventricular  valves.  We  must  teach 
less  about  anatomy  and  histology  and  more  about  the  germ 
theory  of  disease,  about  polluted  water  and  polluted  milk.  We 
must  simplify  every  statement  and  eliminate  the  unimportant. 
We  must  not  seek  to  make  of  physiology  a  training  in  the  pre- 
cision of  measurements  or  in  scientific  method.  We  must  keep 
steadily  in  view  the  practical  object  .  .  .  the  rational  conduct 
of  physical  life.  We  now  teach  history  and  economics  and  civics 
with  some  reference  to  the  future  life  of  the  public  school  pupil 
as  a  citizen.'* 

He  speaks  of  "arousing  a  compelling  interest  in 
'the  subject."  He  also  has  something  to  say  about 

arid  osteology." 

For  the  relief  of  high-school  pupils  and  teachers 
I  propose : 

(1)  That  the  teaching  of  physics  and  chemistry  in 


MODERN  TREND  OF  PHYSICS  39 

secondary  schools  should  be  less  mathematical  and 
more  descriptive. 

(2)  That,  in  order  to  secure  greater  freedom  in 
the  teaching  of  high-school  physics,  the  official  list 
should  be  increased  by  the  addition  of  qualitative 
experiments,  and  that  teachers  should  be  free  to 
choose  from  the  whole  list  any  thirty-five  to  present 
for  college  entrance. 


IV 
THE  INTENSIVE  METHOD  IN  CHEMISTRY1 

IN  nearly  every  presidential  campaign  we  are 
called  upon  to  hold  opinions  on  some  difficult  prob- 
lems. We  feel  obliged  to  vote  when  we  have  only 
inklings  of  the  truth.  It  may  take  two  or  three 
campaigns  on  a  particular  subject  to  enable  us  to 
acquire  knowledge  that  we  may  clearly  define. 
Questions  which  puzzled  the  most  astute  minds  a 
few  years  ago  are  clearly  understood  by  the  average 
mind  of  to-day. 

This  is  the  way  we  have  gained  our  knowledge 
of  the  principles  of  chemistry.  First  came  inklings 
of  ideas.  They  may  have  been  ruminated  upon, 
but  they  were  forgotten  as  much  as  we  ever  forget 
anything.  After  a  time  we  again  met  these  ideas 
and  were  startled  perhaps  to  find  that  we  compre- 
hended them  much  more  clearly  than  before,  as 
though  the  mind  had  been  doing  some  unconscious 
work  upon  them  meanwhile.  This  experience  may 
recur  many  times  with  regard  to  the  same  idea  until 
finally,  after  several  years  perhaps,  we  see  the 
truth  with  clearness. 

This  seems  to  be  a  law  under  which  the  mind  must 
work,  —  a  law  which  we  must  reckon  with  in  teach- 

1  Read  before  the  New  York  Chemistry  Teachers'  Club,  May  12, 1906. 

40 


INTENSIVE   METHOD   IN   CHEMISTRY      41 

ing.  We  speak  contemptuously  of  our  modern 
newspaper  civilization  with  its  smattering  of  ideas, 
but  is  there  proof  that  men  of  any  other  age  ever 
did  or  ever  can  acquire  knowledge  by  any  far  dif- 
ferent method  ? 

Now  it  sometimes  happens  that  men,  who  have 
spent  several  years  passing  through  this  sort  of 
experience  in  the  study  of  chemistry  and  who  have 
arrived  at  pretty  clear  ideas  themselves,  under- 
take to  teach  these  ideas  full-fledged  to  beginners. 
Thoroughness  and  ac<firacy  are  their  aim.  To  go 
slow  and  cut  a  clean  swath  is  their  method.  They 
are  champions  of  the  intensive  as  against  the  extensive 
method.  They  demand  of  beginners  definiteness, 
sureness,  and  completeness  of  knowledge,  and  they 
attempt  to  make  a  few  quantitative  experiments 
furnish  what  time  and  extended  experience  alone 
can  supply. 

Teach  chemistry  to  beginners  —  old  or  young  — 
for  one  year,  by  whatever  method  one  may  choose. 
When  they  are  examined  upon  the  subject  the 
next  year,  their  ideas  appear  to  be  exceedingly  hazy. 
This  is  of  necessity  so.  It  is  a  law  of  the  mind,  and 
teachers  should  not  be  ignorant  of  it.  College  pro- 
fessors undertake  to  examine  these  products  of 
the  high-school  chemistry  class  and  are  amazed 
at  the  results,  and  their  judgments  of  the  pupils 
and  their  teachers  are  very  unjust.  To  mitigate 
as  far  as  possible  the  severity  of  these  unjust  judg- 
ments, pupils  are  put  through  the  senseless  but 
very  effective  process  of  cramming  the  answers  to 
questions  used  upon  recent  examination  papers. 


42  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

It  happens  that  a  large  number  of  students  take 
their  first  year  of  chemistry  work  in  college  and  the 
assistants,  whose  duty  it  is  to  read  the  papers,  can 
testify  that  college  students  at  the  end  of  their 
first  year's  work  in  chemistry  have  a  phenomenal 
faculty  for  giving  vague  and  strange  answers  to 
examination  questions. 

If  one  teaches  a  topic  three  times  over,  (1)  as 
completely  as  he  can  in  a  lecture,  (2)  as  thoroughly 
as  he  may  in  the  laboratory,  and  4$)  by  the  study 
and  recitation  of  a  text-booJl  even  though  he  may 
succeed  in  making  the  pupil  understand  each  step, 
he  will  find  a  few  weeks  later  that  the  pupil  has  no 
realizing  sense  of  the  matter.  He  is  like  a  person 
who  answers  questions  correctly  when  half  asleep. 

Pupils  in  the  kindergarten  and  elementary  school 
like  repetition.  It  is  the  only  means  by  which  im- 
pressions are  made  upon  their  brains.  High-school 
and  college  students  have  not  passed  beyond  the 
operation  of  the  sq^ne  law.  The  justification  for 
carrying  along  simultaneously  the  three  methods 
of  instruction  —  lecture,  laboratory  work,  and  study 
of  the  text-book  —  lies  in  the  necessity  for  reitera- 
tion. This  also  furnishes  ample  justification  for 
giving  college  students  a  course  in  general  chemistry 
even  though  they  may  have  had  an  excellent  course 
in  chemistry  in  the  high  school.  -^ 

A  year's  course  of  laboratory  work  consisting  of 
thirty-five  experiments,  mostly  quantitative,  with 
little  lecture  work  and  little  text-book  work,  fur- 
nishes too  little  repetition  and  too  little  perspective. 
When  each  experiment  by  itself  is  intended  to 


INTENSIVE  METHOD  IN  CHEMISTRY      43 

establish  one  principle,  it  fails  by  its  meagerness. 
Better  have  thirty-five  groups  of  experiments,  each 
group  containing  experiments  which  are  closely 
allied,  mostly  qualitative,  and  all  calculated  to  give 
different  points  of  view  of  the  same  subject.  Some 
experiments  should  be  quantitative  but  generally 
each  quantitative  experiment  should  be  preceded 
by  several  of  a  qualitative  nature  upon  the  same 
subject.  Some  quantitative  experiments  should  be 
assigned  to  the  lecture  and  some  qualitative  experi- 
ments should  be  made4aboratory  work.  Induction 
and  verification  may  play  a  minor  part  in  the  course, 
but  all  experiments,  whether  used  for  lecture  or  for 
laboratory  purposes,  should  have  the  main  purpose 
of  making  the  subject  real.  I  do  not  object  to  inten- 
sive work  nor  to  quantitative  experiments.  We 
may  admit  that  they  are  the  cream  of  the  whole 
matter  and  yet  insist  that,  like  the  nutritive  part 
of  food,  they  must  be  mixed  with  a  large  bolus  if 
digestion  is  to  proceed.  Certainly  "the  notion 
that  an  experiment  is  a  vehicle  for  training  in  accu- 
racy primarily  is  a  very  harmful  superstition." 

We  teachers  of  chemistry  need  to  take  courses 
in  applied  science,  we  also  need  courses  in  biology, 
physiography,  and  other  allied  sciences  in  order 
that  we  may  give  a  practical  turn  to  our  teaching 
of  chemistry.  The  time  must  come  when  we  shall 
give  the  higher  degrees  in  education  at  the  university 
for  such  broad  work  as  that  quite  as  much  as  for 
the  more  narrow  specialization. 

There  are  at  least  three  reasons  why  we  should  teach 
principles  always  with  reference  to  their  applications  : 


44  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

1.  Our  pupils  get  no  correct  appreciation  of  the 
principles  themselves  until  they  see  their  applica- 
tions.    A  subject  becomes  a  science  only  when  its 
principles  are  related  to  something. 

2.  The   subject   must  be  taught   with  reference 
to  its  practical  application  not  only  for  commercial 
purposes  but  also  for  the  sake  of  human  interest  and 
culture.     That  is  a  very  preposterous  claim  that 
our  friends  who  call  themselves  humanitarians  make 
—  that  their  subjects  alone  contribute  to  human 
interest  and  human  culture.     It  would  be  easy  for 
us  to  establish  chemistry  in  the  hearts  of  the  people 
as  the  humanity  par  excellence,  and  it  is  our  duty  to 
do  that. 

3.  We  must  make  our  subject  practical  for  com- 
mercial reasons.     It  is  our  duty  to  do  all  in  our 
power  to  help  our  pupils  to  earn  a  living  and  become 
useful  members  of  society. 

Chemistry  is  the  best  of  all  subjects  to  lend  itself 
to  the  logical  and  scientific  development  of  prin- 
ciples. The  topics  may  be  so  arranged  that  each 
one  shall  present  further  illustration  of  foregoing 
principles  while  adding  new  ones.  In  this  way 
the  last  half  of  the  year  may  be  almost  wholly  reiter- 
ation of  principles  with  increasing  power  to  predict 
their  applications  in  new  conditions.  This  is  where 
our  training  in  induction  conies  in. 

As  for  the  main  results  to  be  sought  I  should  say 
that,  if  a  pupil  understands  his  text-book  in  chemis- 
try as  well  as  the  average  pupil  understands  his 
history,  we  ought  to  be  satisfied.  I  do  not  agree 
with  those  who  speak  slightingly  of  text-book  work 


INTENSIVE  METHOD  IN  CHEMISTRY     45 

in  general  or  of  the  existing  text-books.  There  are 
a  dozen  or  two  text-books  for  high-school  use  which 
are  very  good  indeed,  and  it  would  be  a  distinct 
gain  if  we  should  abandon  the  practice  of  making 
syllabuses  and  admit  to  college  students  who  have 
been  certificated  as  having  completed  any  one  of 
these  text-books  with  appropriate  laboratory  work 
to  make  it  real. 


SCIENCE  FOR  CULTURE1 

IF  there  is  anything  the  matter  with  science  teach- 
ing one  may  be  very  hopeful  that  the  difficulty  will 
be  cured  when  he  considers  the  number  of  associa- 
tions and  clubs  of  science  teachers  formed  to  dis- 
cuss plans  for  improving  present  conditions. 

My  subject  needs  a  little  definition. 

Probably  every  one  who  is  teaching  science  is 
attempting  to  cultivate  something.  One  aims  at 
accuracy,  skill,  honesty  of  thought,  discipline; 
another  aims  to  cultivate  imagination,  power  of 
generalizing,  information,  etc. 

I  have  no  disagreement  with  either  party,  except 
that  they  ought  not  to  exist  as  parties.  They 
should  combine.  The  different  departments  of 
education  should  work  toward  one  end.  Certainly 
it  cannot  be  the  duty  of  one  department  to  tear 
down  what  another  constructs. 

It  is  my  purpose  to  speak  of  culture  as  we  generally 
use  the  term  when  we  speak  of  culture  courses, 
liberal  education,  etc. 

No  one  needs  imagination  more  than  the  investi- 

1  Paper  read  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Central  Association  of 
Science  and  Mathematics  Teachers,  University  of  Chicago,  November 
30,  1906. 

46 


SCIENCE  FOR  CULTURE  47 

gator,  and  no  one  has  a  better  opportunity  to  culti- 
vate it  than  the  teacher  of  physics.  The  scientist 
and  the  humanist  have  not  conflicting  duties  — 
indeed  there  is  no  occasion  to  make  a  distinction 
between  them.  Humanism  which  is  not  scientific 
and  science  which  is  not  humanistic  are  worthless. 
Professor  Cooke  says : 

"Science  culture  differs  in  its  methods  from  the  old  classical 
culture,  but  it  has  the  same  spirit  and  the  same  object."  1 

Professor  Burr,  speaking  of  the  fundamental  idea 
of  the  humanists,  says  : 

"  It  was  their  open  purpose  in  which  they  gloried  to  treat  of 
things  as  they  actually  existed,  to  get  as  near  to  the  life  of  the 
community  as  the  best  knowledge  would  bring  them ;  in  other 
words,  to  touch  human  life  intimately  and  at  the  greatest  pos- 
sible number  of  points." 2 

Let  it  be  conceded  that  it  is  very  desirable  to 
cultivate  accuracy,  self-dependence,  mental  honesty, 
etc.  There  is  no  short  cut  —  no  royal  road  to  these 
results.  Such  fruits  do  not  come  out  of  forty  labor- 
atory exercises.  They  are  a  slow  growth  of  many 
years.  Quantitative  work  simplified,  made  direct, 
and  put  in  its  proper  sequence  with  qualitative  work 
may  profitably  occupy,  say,  one  quarter  of  the  effort 
of  a  high-school  pupil  in  physics.  But  science  is 
something  more  than  measurement.  To  be  sure 
when  men  began  to  measure  they  took  great  strides 
forward,  but  it  is  equally  true  that  research  comes 
to  a  standstill  when  information  and  imagination 

1 J.  P.  Cooke,  Science  Culture,  p.  20. 
*  W.  H.  Burr,  Science,  October  26,  1906. 


48  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

are  wanting.  The  chief  difficulty  with  science 
teaching  to-day,  both  in  the  high  school  and  in  the 
college,  is  that  we  do  not  give  sufficient  information. 

Culture  courses,  or  information  courses,  are  often 
spoken  of  scornfully  as  a  "smattering  of  all 
the  'ologies." 

We  have  the  mistaken  idea  that  we  can  cut  a 
clean  swath  in  education ;  can  teach  a  subject 
thoroughly;  can  treat  a  few  principles  and  teach 
the  whole  truth  about  them  first  hand.  But  this 
is  to  attempt  the  impossible.  Neither  the  immature 
nor  the  mature  human  mind  works  that  way. 

Dr.  Simon  Newcomb  says  : 

"  The  plausible  system  of  learning  one  thing  thoroughly  be- 
fore proceeding  to  another,  and  taking  things  up  in  their  logical 
order  only,  should  be  abandoned.  Let  us  train  the  pupil  as 
rapidly  as  possible  in  the  higher  forms  of  thought  and  not  be 
afraid  of  his  having  a  little  smattering  of  advanced  subjects  be- 
fore they  are  reached  in  regular  course.  Let  us  remember  that 
thoroughness  of  understanding  is  a  slow  growth,  in  which  un- 
conscious cerebration  plays  an  important  part,  and  leave  it  to 
be  slowly  acquired.  A  teacher  aiming  at  thoroughness  might 
have  kept  Cayley  or  Sylvester  working  half  his  life  on  prob- 
lems of  advanced  arithmetic  without  reaching  his  standard  of 
thoroughness."1 

The  teachers  of  De  Morgan,  the  mathematician, 
found  him  dull  in  mathematics. 

Let  me  recall  the  scene  from  that  charming  little 
book,  "Philip's  Experiments,"  where  Philip  and  his 
father  are  surveying  in  the  field  when  the  School- 
master is  introduced. 

1  Simon  Newcomb,  Educational  Review,  April,  1906. 


SCIENCE  FOR  CULTURE  49 

"Philip's  schoolmaster  pointed  out  that  after  he  had  a  sys- 
tematic training  in  geometry  and  trigonometry,  he  would  have 
little  difficulty  with  the  problems  which  arise  in  surveying.  He 
also  said  that  the  plane  table  should  have  a  telescope  instead  of 
rude  sights,  and  he  described  various  accurate  instruments,  and 
intimated  that  I  was  cultivating  habits  of  inaccuracy  in  Philip. 
Training  in  science  which  was  not  highly  accurate  he  believed 
was  worse  than  no  training  at  all.  I  listened,  but  I  remembered 
that  this  teacher  had  kept  Philip  at  work  making  highly  accu- 
rate measurements  with  a  delicate  balance.  The  boy  had  not 
appreciated  the  construction  of  the  balance,  for  he  had  never 
made  weighings  with  a  rough  instrument,  and  his  mind  had  been 
kept  so  fixed  upon  the  third  place  of  decimals,  that  he  did  not 
appreciate  what  specific  gravity  really  means.  I  could  see  that 
the  schoolmaster  in  his  endeavor  to  refine  had  forgotten  the 
difficulties  of  an  immature  mind.  Philip  was  on  one  contour 
line  and  he  on  another,  and  it  would  take  more  than  a  mega- 
phone to  put  them  into  communication."  ~l 

"In  obtaining  quantitative  work,  exactness  must  be  de- 
manded, but  exactness  is  a  quality  that  comes  relatively  late 
in  youthful  minds  as  in  that  of  the  race.  We  are  attempting 
to  force  nature;  we  are  anticipating  maturity  of  mind  when 
we  crowd  into  a  curriculum  subjects  in  advance  of  the  time 
when  the  mind  of  the  average  boy  or  girl  is  able  satisfactorily 
to  pursue  these  subjects.  .  .  .  Probably  the  fault  is  not  with 
the  subject  physics,  but  with  the  method.  Too  much  quantita- 
tive work  is  demanded  of  both  boys  and  girls ;  too  little  atten- 
tion is  given  to  the  great  names  who  have  developed  the  subject 
and  made  inventions  household  words."  2 

We  are  too  much  afraid  of  teaching  some  things 
which  have  to  be  modified  or  even  unlearned  later. 
"Unlearning"  is  quite  as  educational  as  learning 
and  does  no  harm  to  a  reasonable  being,  indeed 
it  may  be  a  cure  for  bigotry.  It  is  more  important 

1  John  Trowbridge,  Philip's  Experiments,  p.  79. 

2  William  L.  Felter,  Educational  Review,  April,  1906. 

E 


50  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

to    cultivate    openmindedness    than    it    is    to    be 
correct. 

Professor  Hopkins,  in  giving  a  simple,  provisional 
definition  of  an  acid,  says : 

"At  that  stage  of  instruction  this  simple  working  definition 
is  sufficient.  More  would  be  an  enormity.  What  though  the 
definition  be  untrue  ?  The  instruction,  it  is  to  be  remembered, 
demands  simplicity  and  progression  —  not  truth.  ...  It 
shows  the  subject  presented  not  as  a  carefully  completed,  rounded 
and  exact  definition  .  .  .  but  as  a  part-truth  at  first  which 
grows  with  his  capacity  for  understanding."  l 

We  are  too  sensitive  about  being  up  to  date  with 
our  facts  and  theories.  Since  it  has  become  impos- 
sible for  any  man  to  keep  up  with  the  literature  of 
more  than  one  subject,  men  have  become  timid 
about  teaching  more  than  one  subject.  But  it  is 
not  difficult  to  show  that  the  man  who  keeps  himself 
moderately  well  informed  upon  the  progress  in 
several  sciences  is  better  prepared  to  teach  than 
the  one  who  knows  only  one  subject.  The  weakest 
thing  about  research  to-day  is  that  our  men  are  not 
widely  informed. 

One  who  has  traveled  much  and  become  familiar 
with  types  of  country  may  find  his  way  through 
an  unknown  territory  and  readily  suspect  it  when 
he  is  approaching  a  spot  sought  for.  The  ant 
studying  his  grains  of  sand  does  not  get  this  view 
of  a  country.  It  is  the  "bird's-eye"  view.  Sailors 
by  extended  experience  become  accurate  observers  of 
weather  phenomena.  Miners  and  farmers  and  horse 
dealers  and  experts  of  all  kinds  acquire  their  accuracy 
of  knowledge  chiefly  by  the  extensive  method. 

1  Arthur  John  Hopkins,  School  Science,  April,  1904. 


SCIENCE  FOR  CULTURE  51 

Professor  Trowbridge  says : 

"The  natural  progress  of  our  study  of  any  subject  is  from 
the  qualitative,  or  the  comparatively  rough  evidence  of  our 
senses,  to  the  quantitative."  l 

He  says  we  need  the  countryman's  habit  of 
"hefting"  a  thing  before  weighing  it. 

Teachers  in  languages  are  everywhere  insisting 
upon  the  advantages  of  reading  at  sight  and  reading 
widely.  Why  should  teachers  of  science  be  slow  to 
learn  the  science  of  teaching  ? 

We  talk  about  trying  to  rid  ourselves  of  precon- 
ceived notions,  but  preconceived  notions  are  quite 
essential  to  progress,  and  the  ability  to  preconceive 
notions  is  absolutely  essential  to  research.  It  is 
no  argument  against  a  gift  that  it  is  capable  of  per- 
version. We  want  to  be  put  in  control  of  our  facul- 
ties, not  deprived  of  them  by  education. 

We  have  reversed  the  natural  order  and  tried  to 
train  high-school  pupils  in  induction.  Using  the 
forms  of  induction  in  the  high  school  may  be  a 
species  of  dishonesty.  After  all,  the  pupils  learn 
not  from  the  experiment  but  from  the  teacher  or 
the  text-book.  We  teach  them  to  test  carbon  dioxide 
gas  with  limewater,  but  we  have  to  inform  them 
that  nothing  else  will  turn  limewater  milky,  and 
so  it  is  only  a  roundabout  way  of  telling  them  the 
whole  story.  We  have  great  satisfaction  in  calling 
this  the  heuristic  method,  and  we  make  the  children 
prigs  by  leading  them  to  think  that  they  are  acquir- 
ing knowledge  first  hand. 

*  John  Trowbridge,  New  Physics,  Preface. 


52  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

The  self-activity  that  high-school  pupils  need  is 
that  which  they  may  get  in  the  laboratory  by  doing 
experiments  merely  for  the  purpose  of  coming  in 
contact  with  things  —  making  their  knowledge  real 
—  acquiring  "a  certain  balance  of  judgment  which 
comes  from  actual  contact  with  things." 

"The  mind  must  rest  upon  physical  laws  for  a  comparative 
long  period  in  order  to  understand  their  true  significance."  l 

Pupils  learn  by  imitation  chiefly.  Professor  Trow- 
bridge  recommends  performing  in  lectures  by  ex- 
periments which  the  students  afterwards  perform 
themselves  in  the  laboratory. 

In  many  schools  throughout  this  country  one 
may  find  eminently  successful  teachers  of  physiog- 
raphy who  proudly  acknowledge  that  they  learned 
by  imitation  of  Professor  William  M.  Davis  both  their 
subject  and  their  method  of  teaching.  I  should 
characterize  Professor  Davis'  method  as  an  exceed- 
ingly skillful  way  of  giving  the  information  which 
his  students  could  not  acquire  first  hand  in  a  thousand 
years,  and  his  method  is  equally  successful  in  pre- 
paring students  for  research  or  for  teaching. 

The  teaching  of  science  should  accomplish  the 
greatest  possible  good  to  the  greatest  possible  num- 
ber. The  time  was  when  education  proceeded 
without  much  reference  to  the  public.  It  was  in- 
tended for  the  select  few.  A  rapid  change  is  in 
progress.  Within  recent  years  the  public  high 
schools  have  become  the  most  important  educa- 
tional institutions  in  the  country.  They  surpass 

1  John  Trowbridge,  New  Physics,  Preface. 


SCIENCE  FOR  CULTURE  53 

the  colleges  in  buildings,  laboratory  equipment,  and 
teaching  force  —  not  only  in  quantity  but  in  quality. 
In  the  rapid  growth  of  colleges,  the  available  funds 
have  not  increased  in  proportion  to  the  increase  in 
number  of  students.  The  result  is  that  the  classes 
have  been  assigned  inferior  instructors. 

The  growth  of  research,  by  diverting  funds  and 
diverting  men,  has  caused  college  teaching  to  de- 
teriorate. 

The  general  testimony  of  students  is  that  they 
work  much  harder  in  the  high  school  than  in  the 
college.  Who  knows  how  it  might  affect  the  intel- 
lectual and  moral  character  of  college  students 
to  have  courses  of  instruction  which  were  capable 
of  absorbing  their  chief  interest?  So  that  they 
would  not  feel  ashamed  to  say  they  were  more  inter- 
ested in  their  studies  than  in  their  diversions. 

Theoretically  the  pursuit  of  research  ought  to 
enrich  one's  teaching,  but  in  actual  practice  atten- 
tion to  the  art  of  teaching  wanes  as  attention  to 
research  increases.  The  first  requisite  of  a  teacher 
is  to  .be  actuated  by  a  desire  —  a  fervent  desire  — 
to  instruct  others.  If  one  can  work  at  research 
and  not  have  that  ardor  dampened,  it  is  well.  But 
to  hold  a  teacher's  position  and  to  scorn  the  work 
of  teaching  is  simply  dishonest,  and  even  though 
one's  researches  may  be  more  valuable  to  the  world 
than  his  instruction,  those  who  have  paid  tuition 
for  instruction  have  a  just  claim  against  him.  Prob- 
ably most  of  the  money  received  from  tuition  fees 
and  from  endowment  by  undergraduate  colleges 
was  given  for  purposes  of  instruction,  but  after 


54  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

diverting  much  of  this  to  the  support  of  research, 
and  after  giving  the  students  very  indifferent  instruc- 
tion, we  tell  them  that  their  tuition  fees  do  not  cover 
the  cost  of  their  education. 

These  college  students  have  a  starvation  course 
in  measurements  called  physics.  Their  tutors,  hav- 
ing just  passed  through  the  same  course  with  exces- 
sive specialization,  are  suspicious  of  that  expansive 
thing  called  culture.  They  affect  to  despise,  not 
only  the  public,  but  all  departments  of  learning  other 
than  their  own.  They  surpass  the  theologians  in 
narrowing  down  their  lines  of  orthodoxy.  Some 
teachers  of  science  are  like  polarizers.  The  truth 
which  gleams  in  all  directions  is  narrowed  down  to 
one  plane  when  it  is  transmitted  by  them.  Their 
standards  would  unclass  Davy,  Faraday,  Tyndall, 
Pasteur,  Humboldt,  Maxwell,  Huxley,  Agassiz, 
Cooke,  Shaler,  and  the  like,  for  these  men  all 
preached  the  doctrine  that  science  is  good  for  cul- 
ture and  should  be  given  to  all.  Those  who  inter- 
pret science  as  cold  blooded  and  exclusive  have  not 
only  nine-tenths  of  mankind  against  them,  but  a 
majority  of  the  men  of  science  and  particularly  the 
leaders  of  all  time. 

Davy  was  a  poet  and  his  high  literary  abilities 
made  him  a  great  teacher  and  likewise  aided  pro- 
foundly his  researches.  All  of  the  men  mentioned 
above  were  Natural  Philosophers  with  all  the  di- 
versity of  interests  which  that  title  indicates.  All 
were  humanists  and  many  of  them  devoutly  reli- 
gious. 

The  influence  of  the  college  in  all  departments, 


SCIENCE  FOR  CULTURE  55 

classical  as  well  as  scientific,  is  toward  driving  cul- 
ture, in  the  sense  in  which  I  am  using  it,  out  of  the 
schools :  first,  by  narrowing  the  education  which 
it  gives  to  those  who  go  out  to  teach  in  the  schools ; 
and,  second,  by  prescribing  a  syllabus  for  the  schools 
narrowly  interpreted  by  examiners  and  bigotedly 
enforced  by  readers  of  examination  papers.  The 
schools  cannot  even  give  a  cultural  course  in  music. 
The  brevity  of  life  makes  it  necessary  to  have  every- 
thing count  toward  entrance  into  college,  and  the 
college  accepts  only  musical  mathematics.  There 
is  not  a  department  which  is  not  handicapped  in 
this  same  way.  It  is  impossible  to  teach  anything 
as  a  culture  when  it  is  necessary  to  prepare  for 
examination  —  particularly  an  examination  set  by 
another  person.  No  one  can  justly  estimate  the 
progress  and  the  proficiency  of  a  class  except  one 
who  has  been  with  them  throughout  their  study. 
If  a  supervisor's  examination  is  thought  to  be 
necessary,  let  the  teacher  prepare  the  questions 
and  submit  both  questions  and  answers  to  the 
supervisor.  A  "reader"  in  four  minutes  passing 
upon  a  year's  work  6f  *  student  wholly  unknown 
to  him  is  an  absurdity.  ^v>«t  Ki*c^f 

I  cannot  look  upon  a  syllabus  as  a  blessing  even 
though  it  may  be  prepared  by  a  majority  of  the 
teachers.  Why  should  uniformity  be  thought  neces- 
sary or  desirable?  The  "New  Movement  among 
Physics  Teachers"  is  very  helpful  so  long  as  it 
keeps  in  a  state  of  solution,  but  we  may  regret  its 
crystallization.  One  may  hope  that  if  we  must 
have  a  syllabus,  it  may  be  extensive  enough  to  in- 


56  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

elude  all  that  may  be  desired  by  any  considerable 
number  of  teachers,  and  that  each  teacher  shall 
be  allowed  great  freedom  of  choice  within  the  sylla- 
bus. 

The  high  schools  are  coming  nearer  in  touch  with 
the  public  mind  every  day.  They  are  powerfully 
influencing  public  sentiment  and  are  in  turn  being 
profoundly  influenced  by  public  sentiment.  We 
have  lately  had  evidence  that  science  was  in  the 
ascendancy  in  the  minds  of  the  people  by  their  vast 
gifts  for  equipping  schools  and  colleges  for  teaching 
science ;  but  unless  our  teaching  is  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  the  majority,  we  shall  soon  see  the  funds 
drifting  in  other  directions,  or  what  is  more  likely, 
we  shall  see  ourselves  drifted  away  from  our  moorings 
by  the  resistless  tide. 

In  the  ultimate  analysis  the  same  public  supports 
the  colleges  and  the  schools.  The  college  looks  to 
the  public  for  its  funds,  whether  they  be  legacies 
or  legislative  grants  or  tuition  receipts;  it  looks  to 
the  public  for  exemption  from  taxation ;  it  looks  to 
the  public  for  the  patronage  of  its  sons  and  daughters. 
The  public  in  turn  demands  of  the  colleges  better 
service  in  the  matter  of  giving  instruction. 

People  have  recently  learned  that  they  must 
square  their  lives  according  to  physical  principles, 
and  they  and  their  children  have  turned  to  educa- 
tional institutions  for  information  with  an  eager- 
ness that  is  irresistible. 

Their  children  have  increased  the  attendance 
upon  the  colleges  fivefold  in  recent  years,  and  they 
themselves  have  entered  university  extension  courses 


SCIENCE  FOR  CULTURE  57 

in  countless  thousands.  In  some  cases,  the  extension 
courses  furnish  quite  as  good  instruction  as  any 
given  at  the  university.  Faraday  was  started  on 
his  course  as  a  scientist  by  Davy's  public  lectures, 
and  Cooke1  says  that  he  got  his  first  taste  of  real 
knowledge  from  the  lectures  at  the  Lowell  Institute, 
although  he  was  a  pupil  in  the  Boston  Latin  School 
at  the  time  —  and  that  taste  awakened  an  appetite 
which  was  never  satisfied.  Cooke  says  he  eagerly 
sought  the  popular  science  of  the  day,  which  was 
vastly  inferior  to  what  we  have  to-day.  We  may 
now  rank  a  few  of  the  daily  newspapers  among 
our  better  teachers  of  Science.  Huxley  said, 
"Science  is  not  solely  for  the  men  of  science  but  for 
the  people." 

General  courses  in  college  should  be  culture 
courses.  They  should  be  what  their  name  indicates 
—  general  surveys.  A  majority  of  the  students 
in  such  courses  will  not  and  ought  not  to  pursue  the 
subject  longer  than  one  year,  when  we  come  to  bal- 
ance up  the  claims  of  all  the  subjects  in  a  liberal 
course.  Why  then  do  the  instructors  persist  in 
giving  them  that  which  is  absolutely  meaningless, 
unless  it  be  joined  to  a  protracted  study  of  one  sub- 
ject for  several  years,  and  why  do  they  give  them 
that  which  properly  belongs  not  so  much  at  the 
beginning  as  at  the  end  of  the  course  in  that  par- 
ticular subject?  Such  general-survey  courses  are 
quite  as  important  to  those  who  will  go  on  to  special- 
ize in  the  subject  as  to  the  students  who  will  pursue 
it  no  farther.  Large  knowledge  acquired  by  gen- 

1  J.  P.  Cooke,  Scientific  Culture  and  Other  Essays,  p.  72. 


58  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

eral  surveys  in  many  fields  is  necessary  before  one 
can  select  and  organize.  During  his  career  in  high 
school  and  undergraduate  college  a  student  should 
be  encouraged  to  take  general  cultural  courses  in 
each  and  all  the  sciences  whether  his  aim  is  to  special- 
ize or  not. 

"The  time  has  already  come  when  to  know  any  one  of  the 
sciences  thoroughly  it  is  necessary  to  know  the  rest;  in  fact, 
all  the  so-called  natural  sciences  are  different  branches  of  one 
great  science."  1 

It  is  not  possible  to  get  an  elementary  knowledge 
of  any  one  science  except  by  this  process  of  browsing 
among  many. 

2  "We  have  a  duty  to  our  children  which  we  cannot  avoid,  if 
we  would,  and  for  which  we  shall  be  held  responsible  by  our 
posterity.  These  children  are  entering  life  surrounded  not  only 
by  all  the  wonders  and  glories  of  nature,  but,  also,  by  giant  con- 
ditions, which,  whether  stationed  on  their  path  as  a  blessing  or  a 
curse,  will  inevitably  strike  if  their  behests  are  not  obeyed.  So 
far  as  science  has  been  able  to  define  these  giant  forms,  it  is  our 
duty,  as  it  is  our  privilege,  to  point  them  out  to  those  we  are 
bound  to  protect  and  guide ;  and  in  many  cases  it  is  in  our  power 
to  change  the  curse  into  a  blessing,  and  to  transform  the  destruc- 
tive demon  into  a  guardian  angel.  After  that  command  of  lan- 
guage which  the  necessities  of  civilized  life  imperatively  require, 
there  is  no  acquisition  which  we  can  give  our  children  that  will 
exert  so  important  an  influence  on  their  material  welfare  as  a 
knowledge  of  the  laws  of  nature,  under  which  they  must  live 
and  to  which  they  must  conform;  and  throughout  whose  uni- 
versal dominion  the  only  question  is  whether  men  shall  grovel 
as  ignorant  slaves  or  shall  rule  as  intelligent  servants. 

"It  is  perfectly  possible  for  a  child  before  fifteen  years  of  age 

"  l  Elisha  Gray,  Nature's  Miracles,  p.  170. 
*  J.  P.  Cooke,  Scientific  Culture  and  Other  Essays,  p.  81. 


SCIENCE  FOR  CULTURE  59 

to  acquire  a  real  and  living  knowledge  of  the  fundamental  facts 
of  nature  on  which  physical  science  is  based.  This  is  not  a 
question  of  natural  endowment  or  special  aptitude. 

"To  arouse  a  love  of  study  in  any  subject  is  to  take  the  first 
step  toward  making  your  man  a  scholar  (I  want  to  emphasize 
scholar),  while  to  fail  to  gain  his  interest  in  any  study  is  to  lose 
the  whole  end  of  education." 

1  "We  greatly  wrong  a  pupil  if  we  leave  him  unfitted  to  enter 
into  the  great  inheritance  of  scientific  truth  obtained  by  past 
and  present  research.     In  striving  to  work  out  this  problem  let 
us,  first,  inculcate  a  habit  of  scientific  thinking,  second,  give  as 
wide  a  knowledge  as  possible,  and  third,  awaken  an  interest 
which  shall  be  lasting." 

Mr.  Roy  Fryer  says  : 

2  "That  course  is  best  which  contributes  most  to  general 
information  and  culture  by  acquainting  the  pupil  with  a  wide 
range  of  chemical  facts,  while  at  the  same  time  it  trains  his 
powers  of  observation  and  of  reasoning  from  those  observations." 

We  make  a  great  mistake  when  we  shape  our 
courses  so  as  to  eliminate  all  except  those  who  are 
mathematically  inclined  and  ready  for  specialization. 

3  "No  educated  man  can  expect  to  realize  his  best  possibilities 
of  usefulness  without  a  practical  knowledge  of  the  methods  of 
experimental  science.  ...     It  is  not  to  be  expected  or  desired 
that  many  of  our  students  should  become  professional  men  of 
science  .  .  .  (yet)  any  system  of  education  is  radically  defective 
which  does  not  comprise  a  sufficient  training  in  the  methods  of 
experimental  science  to  make  the  mass  of  our  educated  men 
familiar  with  this  tool  of  modern  civilization. 

"The  elementary  principles  and  the  more  conspicuous  facts 
of  chemistry  are  so  intimately  associated  with  the  experiences 

1  J.  H.  Denbigh,  School  Science  and  Mathematics,  October,  1906,  p.  635. 
8  Roy  Fryer,  School  Science  and  Mathematics,  December,  1906. 
«  J.  P.  Cooke,  Scientific  Culture. 


60  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

of  everyday  life,  and  find  such  important  applications  in  the 
useful  arts,  that  no  man  at  the  present  day  can  be  regarded  as 
educated  who  is  ignorant  of  them.  .  .  .  Physical  Science  has 
become  a  great  power  in  the  world.  Indeed,  after  religion,  it 
is  the  greatest  power  of  our  modern  civilization.  Consider  how 
much  it  has  accomplished  during  the  last  century  toward  in- 
creasing the  comforts  and  enlarging  the  intellectual  vision  of 
mankind.  ...  It  is  frequently  said,  in  defense  of  the  exclusive 
study  of  the  records  of  ancient  learning,  that  they  are  the  prod- 
uct of  thinking,  loving,  and  hating  men  like  ourselves,  and  it  is 
claimed  that  the  study  of  science  can  never  rise  to  the  same 
nobility  because  it  deals  only  with  lifeless  matter.  But  this  is 
a  mere  play  on  words,  a  repetition  of  the  error  of  the  old  school- 
men. Physical  Science  is  noble  because  it  does  deal  with 
thought,  and  with  the  very  noblest  of  all  thought.  .  .  .  The 
ancient  logic  never  relieved  a  moment  of  pain,  or  lifted  an  ounce 
of  the  burden  of  human  misery.  The  modern  logic  has  made  a 
very  large  share  of  material  comfort  the  common  heritage  of 
all  civilized  men." 

Teachers  in  their  zeal  for  maintaining  their  stand- 
ards often  lose  their  missionary  spirit  and  act  as 
though  they  would  exclude  the  large  majority  of 
students  from  the  department  of  knowledge  over 
which  they  preside.  Their  love  for  a  particular 
science  has  overshadowed  their  love  for -their  fel- 
low men.  Such  are  not  true  representatives,  of  the 
men  of  science.  • 

"No  teaching  is  of  any  real  value  that  does  not  come  directly 
from  the  intelligence  and  heart  of  the  teacher  and  thus  appeal 
to  the  intelligence  and  heart  of  the  pupil.  .  .  .  There  is  no 
nobler  .service  than  the  life  of  a  true  teacher ;  but  the  mere  task- 
master has  no  right  to  the  teacher's  name,  and  can  never  attain 
the  teacher's  reward. 

"Value  scientific  studies  not  simply  because  they  cultivate  the 
perception  and  reasoning  faculties,  but  also  because  they  fill\ 


SCIENCE  FOR  CULTURE  61 

the  mind  with  lofty  ideals,  elevated  conceptions,  and  noble 
thoughts.  Indeed,  I  claim  that  there  is  no  better  school  in  which 
to  train  the  aesthetic  faculties  of  the  mind,  the  tastes,  and  the 
imagination  than  the  study  of  natural  science." 

The  history  of  science  tells  of  a  "multitude  who 
have  worked  in  faith  for  the  love  of  knowledge"  and 
"made  themselves  and  their  fellows  more  noble 
men." 


VI 

HOW  THE  PUBLIC  WILL  SOLVE  OUR 
PROBLEMS  OF  SCIENCE  TEACHING1 

IN  this  prognostication  I  have  thought  it  necessary 
to  reenforce  my  views  with  the  testimony  of  a  score 
of  witnesses.  I  beg  leave  therefore  to  act  as  the 
editor  rather  than  the  sole  author  of  this  paper. 
Its  composite  authorship  will  be  found  duly  set  forth 
in  the  various  footnotes. 

In  this  country  we  need  not  fear  a  revolution  in 
matters  of  education  both  because  democracies  are 
proverbially  conservative  and  because  educational 
administration  is  now  well  organized.  Changes  are 
therefore  sure  to  be  a  matter  of  development  and 
growth,  and  he  who  would  work  most  effectively 
may  prepare  for  what  is  before  him  by  studying  the 
history  of  the  past  and  the  trend  of  the  present. 

A  very  casual  survey  of  history  reveals  the  fact 
that  education  in  this  country  has  always  been  an 
exponent  of  the  times. 

When  one  considers  the  changes  that  have  come 
over  all  educational  institutions  in  the  past  genera- 
tion, it  is  impossible  to  escape  the  conclusion  that 
the  public  determines  what  shall  be  the  nature  of 

1  Paper  read  before  the  Wisconsin  State  Teachers'  Association, 
November  12,  1908. 

62 


PROBLEMS  OF  SCIENCE  TEACHING        63 

education.  And  this  seems  to  be  equally  true 
whether  we  consider  the  so-called  private  or  public 
institutions,  and  whether  we  consider  elementary, 
high-school,  or  university  education.  All  must  be 
largely  conventional  and  partake  of  the  character 
of  the  times.  This  fact  has  been  often  recognized 
and  commented  upon  both  by  those  who  regret  it 
and  by  those  who  take  satisfaction  in  it. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  college  community 
is  a  part  of  the  public  and  not  apart  from  it. 

I.  The  public  will  take  greater  control  of  educational 
institutions  and  the  number  of  pupils  will  greatly  in- 
crease. 

Fifty  years  ago  there  were  only  forty  high  schools 
in  the  United  States.  Now  there  are  about  twelve 
thousand.  Ten  years  ago  there  were  about  half  a 
million  high-school  pupils  and  now  there  are  about 
twice  that  number.  The  rate  of  increase  in  the 
number  of  pupils  naturally  is  much  greater  than 
that  of  buildings  or  of  teachers.  A  similar  state  of 
affairs  exists  in  the  colleges,  universities,  and  techni- 
cal schools.  All  this  has  occurred  in  spite  of  the 
attempts  of  some  of  the  colleges  to  "put  up  the 
bar"  and  deny  education  to  all  but  a  relatively 
few.  The  methods  of  selecting  those  upon  whom 
the  fruits  of  education  may  fall  are  likely  to  be  re- 
vised by  the  public,  who  feel  that  the  money  spent 
upon  education  should  make  better  citizens  rather 
than  a  proletariat. 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  academic  methods 
do  not  select  the  most  efficient  candidates. 


64  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

It  has  also  been  shown  that  of  those  who  enter 
the  high  school  two-thirds  drop  out  chiefly  because 
the  instruction  is  not  adapted  to  their  needs.1 

"The  real  difficulty  lies  in  the  lack  of  adaptation  of  the  in- 
struction in  the  high  schools  to  the  need  and  opportunities  of 
the  pupils.  .  .  .  The  instruction  should  be  made  as  far 
as  possible  to  serve  the  needs  of  the  great  mass  of  the  pupils. 
.  .  .  The  high  school  (as  now  administered)  is  essentially 
a  'select'  school .  .  .  the  real  and  imperative  needs  of  the  many 
are  sacrificed  to  the  doubtful  satisfaction  of  the  needs  of  the 
few  .  .  .  what  the  whole  system  requires  is  the  skillful  provision 
for  the  real  good  of  the  greatest  number."  2 

Dr.  Edward  J.  Goodwin,  President  of  Packer 
Institute  and  recently  Assistant  Commissioner  of 
Education  of  the  State  of  New  York,  as  quoted  in 
the  New  York  Times  for  October  25,  1908,  says : 

"We  are  gradually  coming  to  recognize  the  injustice  of  organ- 
izing our  high  schools  in  the  interests  of  the  few  alone.  Our  high 
schools  contribute  in  New  York  for  example  less  than  2  per  cent 
of  the  men  who  yearly  enter  the  so-called  '  unlearned '  pro- 
fessions." 

It  is  inevitable  that  all  educational  institutions 
will  become  much  more  crowded  in  the  near  future, 
for  the  public  is  moving  toward  a  greater  control 
of  the  schools  and  colleges;  and  a  still  further 
increase  of  attendance  upon  our  schools  and  colleges 
will  forthwith  compel  us  to  make  some  modifications 
in  our  methods  of  instruction,  so  as  to  deal  with 
larger  numbers  of  pupils.  For  instance,  it  will 

1  Professor  E.  L.  Thorndike,  Columbia,  "The  Future  of  the  College 
Entrance  Board,"  Educational  Review,  May,  1906.  Also  "The  elimina- 
tion of  pupils  from  school,"  Bulletin  of  the  Bureau  of  Information. 

1  The  New  York  Times  in  a  recent  editorial. 


PROBLEMS  OF  SCIENCE  TEACHING        65 

make  it  difficult  to  talk  seriously  of  "laboratory 
divisions  limited  to  twelve." 

"The  real  voice  of  the  voters  who  have  lately  so  multiplied 
high  schools  has  not  yet  been  clearly  heard,  and  their  unfor- 
mulated  purpose  has  not  yet  been  accomplished.  .  .  .  The  evils 
of  college  dominance  are  now  so  great  and  manifest  that  they 
must  be  transient. "  l 

"The  people  know  what  they  mean  by  education  after  all 
really  quite  as  accurately  as  we  do,  whose  peculiar  business  it  is 
to  define  the  term."  2 

The  conditions  of  our  modern  life  are  driving 
every  one  to  the  study  of  science.  Evening  classes, 
extension  classes,  correspondence  classes,  are  mul- 
tiplying. Books  and  periodicals  give  increasing 
space  to  scientific  subjects  The  development 
of  machinery  has  made  the  study  of  physics  not 
only  a  matter  of  interest  but  a  necessity  to  all 
persons.  The  automobile,  the  motor  boat,  and  the 
like  are  not  only  rivals  of  the  schools  in  the 
teaching  of  physics  but  they  are  at  the  same  time 
the  most  potent  cause  for  the  reform  in  that 
teaching. 

From  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  whose  inaugural  ad- 
dress at  the  Royal  Institution  sets  forth  the  serv- 
ices of  science  to  humanity  and  science  as  an  agent 
in  the  improvement  of  society,  through  the  long 
line  of  masters  down  to  the  present,  there  comes  a 
complete  and  overwhelming  condemnation  of  Caven- 
dish's exclusiveness  in  science. 

1  President  G.  Stanley  Hall,  Clark,  Adolescence,  Vol.  II,  p.  515. 

2  State    Supt.    Henry   C.   Morrison,   New   Hampshire,   Educational 
Review,  October,  1908,  p.  247. 


66  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

"The  subject  matter  of  physics  is  far  more  closely  connected 
than  that  of  any  other  science  with  daily  life  .  .  .  the  things 
we  need  to  know  most  are  the  physical  things  .  .  .  there  is  no 
other  science  except  chemistry,  which  touches  common  life  at 
so  many  points."  l 

n.  The  public  will  no  doubt  require  that  science  instruc- 
tion shall  be  practical,  or  as  Professor  Bailey  puts  it  — 
applicable. 

Unless  it  is  applicable  it  can  neither  be  scientific 
nor  humanistic. 

The  high  schools  of  the  future  will  without  doubt 
be  more  closely  allied  to  schools  of  applied  science 
than  to  those  of  pure  science.  There  will  be  more 
of  the  study  of  processes  than  of  principles;  more 
of  physiology  than  of  anatomy ;  more  of  agriculture, 
nature  study,  natural  philosophy  as  Faraday  under- 
stood it,  than  of  physics  and  chemistry  as  the  terms 
are  now  sometimes  understood. 

Faraday  thought  that  physical  science  was  a 
most  appropriate  study  for  children  and  mentioned 
light  as  a  particularly  good  subject  for  that  purpose. 

Professor  William  Conger  Morgan  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  California  has  an  article  in  School  Science 
for  November,  1908,  on  the  "Relation  of  the  Techni- 
cal World  to  School  Chemistry,"  in  which  he  shows 
admirably  how  the  high-school  course  in  chemistry 
might  be  enriched,  and  he  completely  justifies  the 
substitution  of  "practical"  illustrations  for  the 
usual  academic  treatment  when  he  says : 

1  Professor  William  F.  Magie,  Princeton,  "Boyle  and  Townley,  on 
Observation  and  Reflection,"  Proceedings  of  the  Physics  Club  of  New 
York,  January  £9,  1904. 


PROBLEMS  OF  SCIENCE  TEACHING        67 

"  The  best  reason  for  introducing  experiments  from  the  indus- 
trial world  is  to  illustrate  the  general  principles  of  chemistry." 

This  is  not  materializing  or  commercializing; 
it  is  the  most  effective  way  of  teaching  science 
for  its  own  sake. 

But  let  us  put  special  emphasis  upon  the  next 
division  of  our  subject. 

III.    Science  teaching  will  be  more  humanized. 

"Nothing  is  of  real  worth  unless  it  can  be  directly  connected 
with  some  result  of  conspicuous  benefit  to  mankind. 

"This  attitude  has  profoundly  influenced  educational  theory. 
This  is  a  change  of  attitude  of  the  world  at  large. 

"Society  wants  the  things  of  practical  moment  taught,  and 
it  is  the  task  of  education  to  do  it. 

"Science  has  the  confidence  of  the  people,  before  whose  court 
it  must  justify  itself.  Science  teaching  has  every  natural  ad- 
vantage in  its  favor,  including  the  keen  interest  of  the  pupil, 
and  no  excuse  will  be  accepted  for  its  failure. 

"Science  teaching  has  its  mission  in  general  education.  It 
may  be  taught  so  that  it  throws  light  on  almost  every  phase  of 
human  interest. 

"The  lives  of  the  great  scientists  are  just  as  significant  for 
education  as  the  things  which  they  stand  for.  The  more  students 
learn  about  personality  the  larger  men  they  become."  1 

"It  is  gradually  becoming  clear  that  for  purpose  of  teaching, 
science  must  be  treated  as  a  part  of  human  experience.  It  must 
be  so  closely  linked  with  the  interests  and  problems  of  the  daily 
life  as  to  become  part  of  it.  It  must  be  shown  to  have  arisen 
for  the  purpose  of  meeting  human  needs  and  to  have  played  a 
very  important  part  in  the  development  of  our  present  social 
life."2 

1  Dr.  A.  S.  Dewing,  Harvard,  School  Science,  October  and  Novem- 
ber, 1908. 

2  Professor  C.  R.  Mann,  Chicago,  Educational  Review,  June,  1907. 


68  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

"The  call  to  life,  and  to  life  in  this  world,  is  the  first  and 
fundamental  call  of  the  scientific  age,  it  is  a  call  to  sacrifice 
and  to  service,  and  the  call  to  service  has  been  the  deepening 
undertone  of  the  call  to  humanism."  l 

IV.  The  status  of  the  high-school  teacher  will  be  greatly 
improved  and  we  may  hope  that  great  teachers  will 
arise  as  of  yore. 

If  we  are  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  public,  we  must 
again  have  great  teachers. 

"The  great  teacher  is  the  man  of  great  personality,  in  whom 
nobility  means  more  than  attainments,  and  therefore  the  man 
whose  personal  touch  upon  the  student  is  sure  to  be  quickening 
and  ennobling.  He  must  know  surely  and  clearly  the  subject 
he  is  teaching,  but  he  must  know  even  more  profoundly  and 
sympathetically  the  object  he  is  teaching,  namely,  the  other 
human  beings,  his  pupils,  for  whom  he  is  guide  and  leader. 

"The  greatest  students  of  this  world  have  been  formed  one 
by  one  by  great  masters. 

"  Give  me  a  good  teacher,  of  noble  nature,  and  I  am  compara- 
tively indifferent  to  his  or  her  scholarly  attainments.  The  at- 
tainments will  follow.  Of  what  use  for  educating  our  boys  and 
girls  would  it  be  to  have  the  most  gifted  if  that  teacher  is  him- 
self a  small-natured,  mean-natured,  close-natured,  little-natured, 
soul?"2 

"The  educational  process  is  not  the  mechanical  impact  of 
text-book  or  even  of  ideas  upon  the  intellect,  but  the  impact 
between  living  beings;  and  in  the  interaction  of  these  vastly 
more  is  given  and  received  than  is  ever  formulated.  What 
the  teacher  is  expresses  itself ;  and  always  the  teacher's  person- 
ality is  the  greatest  educational  influence."  3 

1  Professor  W.  T.  Sedgwick,  Massachusetts,  Institute  of  Science  of 
Teaching,  Science,  August  14,  1908. 

8  Professor  Andrew  F.  West,  Princeton,  Educational  Review,  Sep- 
tember. 1908. 

•  Educational  Review,  October,  1908,  p.  295. 


PROBLEMS  OF  SCIENCE  TEACHING        69 

The  high-school  age  is  the  most  important  for 
education,  and  the  public  will  there  place  its  greatest 
teachers.  They  cannot  be  specialists,  for  as  intelli- 
gence increases  in  one  direction  ignorance  becomes 
more  dense  in  other  directions.  The  specialist 
seldom  measures  up  to  the  average  intelligence  of 
his  own  pupils. 

The  greatest  teachers  of  the  future,  like  the  great 
teachers  of  the  past,  will  teach  not  one  but  many 
sciences  and  these  with  reference  to  their  appli- 
cations. 

"A  generation  ago  .  .  .  the  work  was  usually  in  the  hands  of 
one  of  those  admirable  all-round  pedagogues  who  were  capable 
of  teaching  with  equal  facility  every  subject  in  the  curriculum ; 
and  it  may  be  said  in  homage  to  their  talent  that  the  best  of  them 
taught  every  subject  as  well  perhaps  as  some  of  the  specialists 
of  to-day  teach  the  one  subject  to  which  all  their  time  is  given."  1 

"And  we  all  praise  famous  men  — 

Ancients  of  the  College ; 
For  they  taught  us  common  sense  — 
Tried  to  teach  us  common  sense 
Truth  and  God's  Own  Common  Sense 
Which  is  more  than  knowledge."  2 

"A  well-rounded  mind  rather  than  the  mind  of  one  idea  is 
the  general  purpose  of  teaching."  8 

Teaching  is  a  "high  and  sacred  calling"  and  we 
might  expect  it  to  react  upon  the  personality  of  the 
teacher. 

An  Englishman  writing  of  his  visits  to  American 
schools  says : 

1  Professor  Nichols,  Cornell,  Proceedings  of  the  Eastern  Association 
of  Physics  Teachers,  December,  1905.  *  Stalky  and  Co.,  Kipling. 

1  Dr.  Dewing,  School  Science,  November,  1908. 


70  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

"I  have  found  teachers  the  most  attractive  class  in  the  nation, 
because  more  than  any  other  class,  not  excepting  the  clergy,  they 
are  free  from  sordid  aims."  l 

We  may  expect  that  such  teachers  will  maintain 
sympathetic  relations  with  their  pupils. 

At  present  teachers  appear  to  be  divided  into  two 
camps  with  reference  to  their  mode  of  treating  the 
pupils.  One  party  feels  that  there  can  be  no  edu- 
cation without  coercion,  the  other  feels  that  it  is 
possible  to  win  students  to  voluntary  efforts  which 
shall  count  for  more.  The  first  party  accuses  the 
second  of  using  "kindergarten  methods"  and  of 
entertaining  and  interesting  pupils  until  they  lose 
the  capacity  for  work.  Work,  they  claim,  is  their 
watchword,  and  play,  they  claim,  is  the  watchword 
of  the  second  party.  But  the  second  party  has 
never  agreed  to  this  claim.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
says  to  the  first  party,  you  boast  of  work  but  you 
really  administer  sedatives.  Your  quantitative 
laboratory  exercises  and  your  mathematical  treat- 
ment of  physics  is  not  hard,  it  is  stupid.  Its  only 
justification  is  that  it  is  the  easiest  thing  for  an 
overworked  teacher  to  administer,  particularly  if 
he  be  a  teacher  who  lacks  the  power  to  hold  the 
attention  of  a  class  and  therefore  dreads  qualitative 
experiments.  Furthermore  the  second  party  claims 
that  it  secures  a  compelling  interest  in  the  subject 
which  insures  voluntary  effort  not  only  in  school, 
but  out  of  school,  and  through  life.  These  two 
parties  have  never  been  able  to  get  together  by  argu- 
ment, and  I  take  it  that  it  is  a  hopeless  case  of  lack 

1  Educational  Review,  October,  1908,  p.  295. 


PROBLEMS  OF  SCIENCE  TEACHING        71 

of  affinity.  Unless  I  am  greatly  mistaken,  these 
two  parties  in  education  would  also  be  found  to  be 
two  opposite  sects  in  religion  and  for  similar  reasons. 
The  first  requisite  of  a  great  teacher  is  that  he  retain  a 
vivid  recollection  of  himself  as  a  child,  that  he  may 
be  able  to  appreciate  fully  the  pupil's  point  of  view. 

V.  As  the  high-school  teacher  increases  in  dignity  the 
domination  of  the  college  will  cease  and  the  evils  of  uni- 
formity will  disappear. 

"High  school  physics  has  problems  all  its  own  to  which  its 
representatives  should  address  themselves  with  courage,  resolu- 
tion, and  above  all  with  independence,  or  else  the  present  deca- 
dent tendencies  due  to  college  control  will  continue. 

"College  entrance  requirements  as  now  enforced  are  almost  an 
unmitigated  curse  to  the  high  schools,  exploiting  them  against 
their  normal  interests  and  the  purpose  of  the  people  who  support 
them. 

"The  high  school  should  be  master  not  servant. 

"Perhaps  no  institution  in  modern  times  needs  inspection, 
visitation,  and  scrutiny  so  much  as  the  private  endowed 
American  colleges  themselves."  * 

We  can  never  have  a  truly  educational  treatment 
of  any  subject  so  long  as  it  is  studied  solely  with 
college  entrance  examinations  in  view. 

In  England  and  on  the  continent  entrance  exami- 
nations have  been  abolished  on  the  ground  that  they 
are  no  test  for  power. 

"The  function  of  secondary  schools  is  distinct  in  itself  and 
will  one  day  establish  its  independent  right  when  it  has  rid 
itself  of  the  vicious  term  and  still  more  vicious  idea  of  college 
preparation."  2 

1  Hall's  Adolescence,  Vol.  II,  pp.  157,  510,  520,  and  527. 
8  F.  Whitton,  School  Review,  1900,  p.  261. 


72  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

The  high-school  teachers  of  this  country  have 
their  subject  matter  and  method  of  treatment 
minutely  prescribed  for  them  by  those  who  under- 
stand neither  the  subject  nor  the  pupils  as  well  as 
they  do. 

Some  persons,  unconscious  that  physics  is  a  liv- 
ing subject,  that  every  man,  woman,  and  child  has 
his  own  physical  world  to  study,  varying  with  per- 
sons and  with  localities,  demand  that  these  high- 
school  pupils  shall  be  fitted  to  the  Procrustean  bed. 

They  assert  that  physics  is  a  quantitative  subject ; 
that  it  presents  the  greatest  difficulty  to  all  except 
those  few  who  have  special  gifts.  They  say  that 
this  is  predetermined  in  the  nature  of  the  subject. 
All  this,  however,  has  been  explicitly  denied  by  some 
of  the  greatest  natural  philosophers  and  the  greatest 
educational  philosophers. 

In  the  hands  of  the  great  teachers  few  subjects 
are  difficult ;  in  the  hands  of  some  teachers  all  sub- 
jects are  not  only  difficult,  but  utterly  incompre- 
hensible. 

"  Any  of  the  Sciences  can  be  made  impressive  if 
taught  by  a  full  mind  which  alone  can  elementarize," 1 
and  the  ability  to  simplify  is  one  of  the  marks  of  true 
greatness. 

"We  must  distinguish  between  the  teaching  function  and  the 
research  function.  It  is  our  business  as  teachers  to  open  the 
minds  of  the  young  to  the  facts  of  science.  .  .  .  Nature  study 
is  not  a  new  subject ;  it  is  a  new  mode  of  teaching  and  is  just  as 
applicable  to  the  college  as  to  the  common  school."  2 

1  Hall's  Adolescence,  Vol.  II,  p.  202. 

» Professor  L.  H.  Bailey,  Cornell,  Proceedings  New  York  Science 
Teachers'  Association,  Albany,  1907. 


PROBLEMS  OF  SCIENCE  TEACHING        73 

"The  craze  for  uniformity  more  than  any  other  one  thing 
has  led  to  the  great  success  of  our  schools  in  the  development  of 
mediocrity."  1 

"Even  more  harmful  than  overcrowding  is  the  over-system- 
atizing which  characterizes  our  present-day  methods.  The  tend- 
ency nearly  everywhere  is  to  reduce  teaching  to  a  routine  and 
thus  to  deprive  both  teacher  and  pupil  of  the  chance  to  do  and 
think  for  themselves.  A  committee  is  appointed  to  draw  up  a 
syllabus  and  to  outline  the  Physics  teaching  for  a  whole  state 
or  for  the  entire  country.  Every  school  equips  itself  to  follow 
this  program,  and  every  Physics  teacher  goes  through  the  pre- 
scribed course  in  the  prescribed  manner  with  section  after  sec- 
tion, day  after  day  and  year  after  year,  until  Physics  to  him, 
instead  of  being  the  world-wide  glorious  science  that  it  really 
is,  is  comprised  within  the  scanty  pages  of  the  syllabus.  Some 
spirits  there  are  that  refuse  to  be  thus  confined,  but  the  tend- 
ency to  uniformity  levels  down  as  well  as  up  and  the  hilltops 
from  which  one  may  look  out  and  view  the  true  beauties  of 
science  are  cut  down  in  order  that  we  may  have  a  plain,  easily 
traversed  and  easily  cultivated."  2 

"The  interests  and  needs  of  the  pupils  should  be  the  deter- 
mining factor  in  the  arrangement  of  courses  and  the  choice  of 
methods. 

"It  follows  that  a  high  degree  of  uniformity  in  teaching  physics 
is  neither  practicable  nor  desirable. 

"Physics  should  be  taught  not  as  a  preparation  for  college  but 
as  a  preparation  for  life."  3 

1  Professor  Stanley  Coulter,  Purdue  University,  Nature  Study  Review, 
January,  1908. 

2  Professor  E.  L.  Nichols,  Cornell,  Proceedings  Eastern  Association 
Physics  Teachers,  Boston,  1905. 

3  Mr.  F.  B.  Spaulding,  Boys'  High  School,  Brooklyn,  School  Science, 
1908,  p.  674. 


74  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

VI.  As  attendance  upon  the  high-school  classes  in  science 
increases,  individual  laboratory  work  will  of  necessity 
be  somewhat  curtailed  and  more  importance  will  be 
attached  to  the  lecture. 

To  begin  with,  the  so-called  inductive  work  will 
be  eliminated  from  the  laboratory. 

High-school  pupils  are  sometimes  taught  to  "test" 
and  to  "verify,"  in  short  to  learn  things  "first 
hand"  when  they  have  neither  capacity  for  nor 
ground  upon  which  to  draw  conclusions. 

"I  am  an  enemy  of  the  inductive  method  in  the  school  course. 
It  is  utterly  absurd  to  expect  an  immature  boy  of  fifteen  or  six- 
teen to  perform  that  intellectual  feat  of  generalization  that  is 
considered  the  most  mature  effort  of  the  human  mind.  .  .  . 
It  is  supposing  a  mental  endowment  that  only  comes  late  in  life 
to  most  of  us  and  often  never  at  all.  .  .  .  Bad  as  this  method 
is  in  the  hands  of  an  experienced  teacher  it  is  confusion  worse 
confounded  when  a  novice  attempts  it."  J 

The  laboratory  at  best  is  a  very  artificial  means  of 
supplying  experiences  upon  which  to  build  physical 
concepts.  While  it  is  useful  and  needful  it  cannot 
take  the  place  of  an  appeal  to  life's  experiences 
and  the  phenomena  of  nature.  The  charge  that 
pupils  may  read  about  nature  in  books  and  not 
recognize  her  out  of  doors  is  quite  as  applicable  to 
laboratory  work.  In  physics  it  is  too  unreal;  too 
much  devoted  to  statics  —  too  many  things  are 
presented  which  are  never  found  outside  of  a  labor- 
atory and  which  are  not  parallel  to  or  explanatory 
of  anything  found  in  ordinary  human  experience. 

1  Professor  Perkins,  Trinity.  Proceedings  Eastern  Association  Physics 
Teachers,  December,  1905,  p.  25. 


PROBLEMS  OF  SCIENCE  TEACHING        75 

Professor  Mann,  Chicago,  says  that  "for  the  gen- 
eral student  college  laboratory  work  is  neither  essen- 
tial nor  desirable."  1 

"Too  much  time  is  given  to  so-called  laboratory  work  with 
elaborate  and  expensive  apparatus.  Too  little  attention  is  paid 
to  simple  and  effective  illustrations  of  physical  phenomena  and 
simple  applications  of  fundamental  principles  to  be  found  in 
every  school  room  and  its  immediate  environments."  2 

Professor  W.  S.  Franklin,  Lehigh,  says : 

"My  experience  is  most  emphatically,  that  a  student  may 
measure  a  thing  and  know  nothing  at  all  about  it,  and  I  believe 
that  the  present  high-school  courses  in  elementary  physics  in 
which  quantitative  laboratory  work  is  so  strongly  emphasized, 
are  altogether  bad." 

"I  believe  that  the  physical  sciences  should  be  taught  in  the 
secondary  schools  with  reference  to  their  practical  applications. 
I  cannot  endure  a  so-called  knowledge  of  elementary  science 
which  does  not  relate  to  some  actual  physical  condition  or  thing, 
and  I  believe  that  the  only  physical  things  that  are  sufficiently 
prominent  in  a  young  man's  mind  to  be  brought  into  the  field 
of  his  science  study  are  the  things  which  have  been  impressed 
upon  him  in  everyday  life.  Say  what  you  will,  you  must  do 
one  of  two  things  to  be  able  to  teach  physics  in  any  school; 
either  you  must  create  an  actual  world  of  the  unusual  phenom- 
ena of  nature  by  purchasing  an  elaborate  and  expensive  equip- 
ment of  scientific  apparatus  or  you  must  make  use  of  the  boy's 
everyday  world  of  actual  conditions  and  things."  3 

The  public  has  expended  lavishly  for  laboratory 
equipment  in  physics,  doubtless  in  the  expectation 

1  Education,  December,  1906. 

2  Mr.  J.  W.  MacDonald,  Agent,  Massachusetts  State  Board,  Report 
for  1907. 

3  Professor  W.  S.  Franklin,  Lehigh,  Proceedings  Twelfth  Annual  New 
York  State  Science  Teachers'  Association,  Albany,  1907. 


76  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

that  their  children  will  be  better  instructed  thereby 
to  cope  with  the  new  conditions  of  modern  life. 
There  is  no  department  of  education  which  the 
people  have  more  at  heart  and  there  are  abundant 
signs  that  they  will  not  long  permit  their  purposes 
to  be  thwarted. 

Education  is  not  wholly  a  process  of  training.  It 
is  in  considerable  measure  a  matter  of  acquiring 
the  mass  of  information  which  it  is  conventional 
to  have  at  any  particular  age. 

The  lecture  is  the  only  means  by  which  we  may 
bring  in  all  the  good  things  that  we  feel  moved  to 
introduce.  The  great  teachers  of  the  future  will 
be  able  to  instruct  large  classes  by  "talks,  which  is 
the  method  of  the  real  teacher."  This  is  to-day  the 
method  of  the  German  teachers,  who  are  notoriously 
the  best  teachers  in  the  world. 

Large  portions  of  science  should  be  merely  touched 
upon ;  made  understandable  for  a  brief  moment 
and  then  forgotten,  not  even  retained  for  recitation, 
much  less  for  examination. 

"Curiosity  and  interest  are  generally  the  first  outcrop  of 
intellectual  ability.  Youth  is  normally  greedy  for  knowledge 
and  that,  not  in  one  but  in  many  directions. 

"Never  is  the  power  to  appreciate  so  far  ahead  of  the  power 
to  express  and  never  does  understanding  so  outstrip  ability  to 
explain.  Over  accuracy  is  atrophy.  Mental  acquisition  sinks 
too  deep  to  be  reproduced  by  examination.  With  pedagogic 
tact  we  can  teach  about  everything  we  know  that  is  really 
worth  knowing,  but  if  we  amplify  and  moralize  instead  of 
giving  great  wholes  —  if  we  wait  before  each  methodic  step  till 
the  pupil  has  reproduced  all  the  last  we  starve  and  retard  the 
soul. 


PROBLEMS  OF  SCIENCE  TEACHING        77 

"The  nature  of  youth  demands  that  science  should  be  taught 
in  a  large  all-comprehensive  way.  We  must  have  an  introduc- 
tion to  science  that  touches  rather  lightly  on  nearly  all  the  great 
hypotheses  over  the  whole  field. 

"The  boy  in  his  teens  needs  great  wholes,  facts  in  profusion, 
but  few  formulae.  He  has  a  native  gravity  toward  those  frontier 
questions  where  even  the  great  masters  know  as  little  as  he. 

"The  college  should  stand  for  extensive  more  than  for  inten- 
sive study. 

"It  should  stand  with  doors  hospitably  open  to  those  who 
have  time  to  pause  for  it  on  the  road  to  a  profession,  or  to  spend  a 
period  of  culture  and  acquire  an  avocation  before  entering  a 
career.  It  should  let  teaching  have  its  perfect  work. 

"The  teacher  should  forage  widely  and  incessantly,  and  bring 
everything  within  reach  in  his  field  to  his  class.  The  lecture 
method  should  be  made  the  most  of,  being  conversational  and 
designed  to  provoke  reactions.  He  should  teach  every  topic 
broadly  and  comprehensively,  and  instead  of  disparaging  mere 
information,  it  should  ooze  from  his  every  pore. 

"Every  great  expert  should  feel  it  his  duty  to  put  the  best 
that  is  in  him  in  a  form  most  interesting  and  profitable  to  a 
cultured  lay  audience."  1 

The  lecture  room  is  the  place  for  presenting  the 
history  of  science  and  the  biography  of  scientists ; 
the  story  of  inventions  and  how  they  have  trans- 
formed society ;  the  rise  and  development  of  modern 
scientific  theories;  the  linking  of  the  history  of 
science  with  general  history  showing  how  the  evolu- 
tion of  science  was  both  helped  and  handicapped; 
the  contributions  of  science  to  our  comfort,  our 
health,  and  our  general  happiness. 

Mr.  B.  M.  Jaquish  of  Erasmus  Hall  High  School, 
Brooklyn,  New  York,  in  an  unpublished  paper 
has  very  effectually  shown  that  countless  references 

1  Hall's  Adolescence,  Vol.  II,  pp.  85,  453,  151,  156,  528,  548. 


78  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

in  all  our  literature  require  for  their  interpretation 
a  general  knowledge  of  science  and  this  is  rapidly 
becoming  a  sine  qua  non  for  current  literature. 

The  lecture  should  show  the  application  of  science 
in  the  occupations  of  the  particular  community 
in  which  the  school  happens  to  be  located. 

Hence  no  syllabus  can  be  made  to  fit  the  whole 
country.  If  the  school  is  in  a  large  city  and  is 
located  in  one  of  our  most  modernly  equipped  build- 
ings the  lecture  in  physics  will  often  be  devoted  to 
an  explanation  of  that  equipment  which  will  be 
found  to  illustrate  every  chapter  in  physics  far 
better  than  any  laboratory  can. 

VII.    We  may  undertake  to  frame  a  platform  for  future 
science  teaching  as  follows : 

1.  Science  for  high  schools  consists  of  a  well-organ- 

ized mass  of  useful  information. 

2.  In  order  that  the  amount  of  information  may  be 

considerable  it  is  given  for  the  most  part 
"second  hand." 

3.  The   three   means   for   giving   this    information, 

stating  the  more  important  first,  are :  (a) 
Illustrated  lectures.  (6)  Study  of  text-book 
with  recitations,  and  reading  many  references 
in  books  and  magazines  with  written  and 
oral  reports,  (c)  Laboratory  work,  a  small 
portion  of  which  consists  of  exact  measure- 
ments. 

4.  This  mass  of  useful  information  being  acquired 

at  the  hand  of  a  competent  teacher  involves 
discipline  and  training. 


PROBLEMS  OF  SCIENCE  TEACHING        79 

5.  While  the  science  teacher  has  a  peculiar  part 

to  perform  in  the  process  of  education  which 
the  teacher  of  no  other  subject  can  do  so 
well,  his  task  is  not  absolutely  unique  and 
the  methods  of  instruction  which  are  best 
in  the  treatment  of  other  subjects  are  for 
the  most  part  best  for  science. 

6.  A  quantitative  treatment  with  whole  numbers, 

so  to  speak,  runs  through  much  of  the  in- 
struction in  lectures,  recitations,  and  labor- 
atory work  —  giving  concreteness  and  there- 
fore interest  to  the  subject  —  but  this  is 
only  incidental  and  of  minor  importance. 

7.  Science  is  not  presented  as  a  catalogue  of  prin- 

ciples, but  rather  as  history,  biography,  and 
the  evolution  of  changing  ideas.  The  topics 
for  study  are  phenomena  rather  than  laws, 
and  principles  are  presented  only  for  the 
purpose  of  explaining  some  definite  problems 
in  life. 

8.  Since  all  this  applies  equally  to  all  general  or  first 

courses,  whether  given  in  high  schools  or 
colleges,  it  follows  that  college  admission  tests 
are  the  same  as  high-school  graduation  tests.1 

1  See  also  further  discussion  of  this  platform  in  four  papers  already 
published  as  follows : 

1.  "The  Enrichment  of  the  High  School  Course  in  Physics/'  Pro- 
ceedings Eastern  Association  Physics  Teachers,  Boston,  November  5, 
1904. 

2.  "Modern  Trend   of  Physics  and  Chemistry   Teaching,"   Educa- 
tional Review,  March,   1906. 

3.  "  The  Intensive  Method  in  Chemistry,"  School  Science,  Vol.  VI, 
p.  585. 

4.  "Science  for  Culture,"  School  Review,  Vol.  XV,  p.  123. 


80  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

After  full  discussion  the  Science  Conference 
unanimously  passed  the  following  preamble  and 
resolution : 

Whereas:  The  present  methods  of  teaching 
physics  in  secondary  schools  do  not  yield  as  satis- 
factory results  as  we  desire  to  get ;  and, 

Whereas:  We  believe  this  to  be  due  to  the  fact 
that  far  too  great  emphasis  is  now  placed  on  accurate 
quantitative  work;  and, 

Whereas:  This  overemphasis  of  the  importance 
of  quantitative  work  is  due  to  the  fact  that  some 
colleges  take  the  position  that  physics  is  by  nature 
a  quantitative  science,  that  it  is  the  only  such  sub- 
ject in  the  high-school  curriculum,  and  that  it  must 
therefore  be  so  taught,  irrespective  of  the  needs 
and  abilities  of  the  pupils ;  and, 

Whereas :  We  believe  that  physics  for  high  schools 
should  consist  of  a  study  of  the  processes  and  prin- 
ciples of  phenomena  of  the  daily  life  of  the  student ; 
therefore  be  it 

Resolved:  That  we,  members  of  the  Science  Con- 
ference of  the  Wisconsin  State  Teachers'  Associa- 
tion, in  convention  assembled,  do  hereby  agree 
to  change  the  methods  of  teaching  physics  by 
abandoning  as  far  as  may  be  found  desirable  the 
exact  quantitative  work,  and  by  substituting  there- 
for a  more  living  treatment  of  the  subject  based 
on  the  daily  experiences  of  the  pupils. 

The  following  resolutions  were  passed  by  the 
Central  Association  of  Science  and  Mathematics 
Teachers  at  its  meeting  in  Chicago,  November  28, 
1908: 


PROBLEMS  OF  SCIENCE  TEACHING        81 

Resolved:  That  we  believe  in  the  recognition  and 
inclusion  within  our  courses  of  the  practical  and 
applied  aspects  that  make  possible  an  appreciable 
significance  and  belief  in  the  worthwhileness  in 
practical  life  of  the  various  subjects  studied ;  and 

Resolved:  That  we  believe  that  the  formulation 
of  secondary  school  courses  should  be  made  entirely 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  needs  of  the  majority 
of  secondary  school  pupils,  and  further  that  any 
course  that  is  best  for  the  majority  of  the  secondary 
school  pupils  is  best  for  college  entrance. 


VII 
THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE 

GIVEN  a  class  all  the  members  of  which  are  the 
same  age,  all  having  taken  the  same  previous 
studies,  all  having  the  same  standing,  and  all  good 
in  mathematics,  they  will  still  be  found  to  be  widely 
different  in  their  capacity  to  understand  physics. 
The  difference  among  them  lies  not  in  their  mental 
caliber,  but  in  the  experiences  they  may  have  had, 
or  rather  in  the  attention  they  may  have  paid  to 
their  experiences.  There  are  high-school  pupils 
who  have  had  no  conscious  experience  that  would 
lead  them  to  think  that  they  could  secure  a  me- 
chanical advantage  by  taking  hold  of  the  long  arm 
of  a  lever.  Such  pupils  often  go  through  the  usual 
quantitative  experiments  in  the  laboratory  as  though 
they  were  exercises  in  pure  mathematics.  The  ex- 
periments seem  to  add  nothing  to  the  pupils'  physical 
sense.  They  are  no  more  likely  to  feel  that  they 
could  move  a  log  better  by  taking  hold  of  the  end 
than  by  seizing  it  in  the  middle ;  they  see  no  reason 
why  a  heavy  object  may  be  rolled  up  a  gradual  incline 
more  easily  than  up  a  steep  one,  or,  for  that  matter, 
why  it  would  not  be  better  to  lift  it  without  an  in- 
clined plane.  They  have  no  instinct,  when  walking 
by  the  side  of  a  railroad  track,  which  would  lead  them 

82 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    83 

to  prefer  the  inside  rather  than  the  outside  of  a 
curve  when  a  train  is  coming.  They  see  no  reason 
why  a  river  should  gouge  the  outer  rather  than  the 
inner  bank  on  its  winding  course.  They  see  no 
reason  why  a  propeller  wheel  should  cause  an  airship 
to  move.  It  is  not  to  them  self-evident  that  if 
rapidly  moving  air  knocks  a  building  over  the 
air  must  have  weight.  If  when  looking  obliquely 
upon  the  surface  of  a  quiet  lake  they  see  a  bright 
star  reflected  therein,  they  do  not  know  by  experi- 
ence where  to  look  for  the  star  itself.  These  are 
not  rare  cases.  A  majority  of  the  students  who 
come  to  the  study  of  physics  feel  that  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  common  everyday  material  phenomena 
is  "uncanny."  The  first  purpose  of  a  beginning 
course  in  physics,  whether  in  grammar  school,  high 
school,  or  college,  should  be  to  make  nature  and  her 
ways  seem  natural.  It  matters  little  whether  we 
call  it  nature-study,  phenomenology,  or  physics 
(all  of  which  terms  are  in  reality  synonymous  as 
applied  to  elementary  work) ;  we  must  lay  the 
foundation  for  an  understanding  of  our  subject  by 
furnishing  a  basis  of  experience,  comparing  observa- 
tion with  observation,  lighting  one  fact  with  another. 
This  does  not  necessarily  mean  laboratory  work, 
although  that  may  be  made  a  most  fruitful  aid. 

It  would  seem  self-evident  that  the  first  thing 
one  must  do  is  to  find  out  the  exact  mental  equip- 
ment of  his  students  —  to  find  out  what  the  founda- 
tion is  before  he  begins  to  build  upon  it.  But 
the  schools  are  full  of  persons  just  out  of  college, 
teaching  not  the  pupils,  but  their  own  self-respect- 


84  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

ing  course  in  physics.  These  straightway  reach 
the  conclusion  that  few  students  are  fit  to  take 
physics. 

The  writer  believes  that  there  is  nothing  in  the 
nature  of  physics  nor  in  the  nature  of  either  grammar- 
school  or  high-school  pupils  which  precludes  their 
studying  physics ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  would  seem 
evident  that  the  subject  is  peculiarly  well  suited 
to  fit  them  for  life.  This  view  seems  to  be  generally 
accepted  by  the  public  and  most  children  seem  to 
have  the  desire  for  a  knowledge  of  things  physical 
so  strongly  implanted  in  them  that  they  will  study 
the  subject  after  a  fashion  in  spite  of  the  delinquencies 
of  the  schools.  No  distaste  for  the  physics  of  the 
schoolmaster  has  in  the  slightest  degree  affected 
their  love  for  the  physics  of  everyday  life. 

The  first  requisite  of  a  high-school  teacher  of 
physical  science  is  that  he  should  have  that  grasp 
of  his  subject  and  that  understanding  of  pupils 
that  would  enable  him  to  teach  his  subject  with 
equal  facility  to  any  and  all  persons  from  twelve 
to  eighteen  years  of  age. 

Apparently  not  more  than  5  or  6  per  cent  of  all 
the  high  schools  in  the  United  States  have  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  teachers  so  that  one  may  give  his 
whole  attention  to  physical  science,  including  physics 
and  chemistry,  and  not  more  than  2  or  3  per  cent 
have  teachers  who  may  specialize  between  physics 
and  chemistry.  This  does  not  appear  to  be  a  mis- 
fortune. A  rather  careful  and  extended  investiga- 
tion of  the  matter  has  brought  me  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  best  teachers  of  any  science  are  those  who 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    85 

are  fairly  well  trained  in  all,  rather  than  those  who 
have  had  training  in  one  science  only.  The  high- 
school  teacher  of  physical  science  needs  at  least  a 
general  college  course  of  one  year's  duration  in  each 
of  the  following :  physics,  chemistry,  and  biology. 
It  is  desirable  that  he  have  a  second  year's  course 
in  each  of  the  first  two.  But  it  is  of  the  utmost 
importance  that  these  courses  be  given  him  by  a  • 
model  teacher  and  that  he  be  associated  with  those 
who  are  looking  forward  to  teaching  rather  than  to  ' 
research.  He  should  have  also  a  course  in  the  his- 
tory of  physical  science  and  in  the  teaching  of  the  * 
same.  He  should  gain  a  knowledge  of  the  modern 
trend  of  teaching  in  his  field  by  a  study  of  the 
papers  read  at  educational  meetings  and  discussions 
published  in  educational  journals  during  the  past 
fifteen  years.  He  should  read  the  prefaces  of  a 
dozen  or  more  of  the  high-school  text-books  in 
physical  science.  These  have  been  written  for  the 
most  part  by  the  most  successful  teachers  of  the 
time,  selected  by  rather  astute  publishing  houses 
who  keep  a  close  watch  upon  the  field  and  generally 
know  what  is  most  likely  to  meet  the  demand. 
Each  author  in  his  preface  has  attempted  to  state 
what  are  his  ideals.  To  read  these  prefaces  and  to 
scan  through  the  texts  is  one  of  the  best  ways  to  dis- 
cover what  are  the  aims  and  tendencies  of  the 
teaching  of  physical  science  for  any  period.  And 
a  clear  understanding  of  the  trend  of  the  immedi- 
ate past  will  enable  one  to  predict  what  will  be  the 
practice  of  the  near  future. 

The  intending  teacher  should  be  familiar  with 


86  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

the  various  syllabuses  put  forth  in  his  subjects  and 
the  examination  questions  upon  his  subjects  which 
have  been  given  high-school  graduates  for  the  past 
few  years.  These  will  indicate  the  scope  of  the 
subject  as  it  is  in  the  mind  of  some  of  those  who  are 
in  a  position  to  direct  the  teaching  of  physics. 
Visits  to  schools,  inspection  of  equipment,  and  talks 
with  teachers  are  a  necessary  part  of  the  education 
of  the  intending  teacher.  The  reports  of  city  and 
state  superintendents  often  contain  very  instructive 
matter  for  intending  teachers. 

During  the  college  course  most  young  men  suffer 
a  complete  intellectual  revolution.  Senior  conserva- 
tism takes  the  place  of  freshman  enthusiasm,  but  it 
is  still  counterfeit.  Their  excesses  are  quite  as  great, 
but  they  are  of  a  negative  kind.  Finding  that  much 
which  they  had  affirmed  is  untenable,  they  now 
deny  everything.  Being  unable  longer  to  believe 
all  things,  they  disbelieve  all  things.  If  they  have 
chosen  science  as  their  major  study,  they  affect  to 
discount  all  other  subjects  of  study.  They  some- 
times show  contempt  for  poetry,  art,  music,  litera- 
ture, philosophy,  religion,  women,  and  people  in 
general  outside  of  their  department.  Their  elders, 
thinking  that  all  this  is  merely  a  phase  of  adoles- 
cence, are  more  or  less  complacent  about  it,  but 
I  cannot  feel  that  they  are  yet  suitable  material 
for  high-school  teachers.  There  is  still  a  capacity 
for  worship  in  them,  and  it  is  directed  toward  science 
and  the  great  scientists.  Like  most  worshipers, 
they  conceive  their  gods  to  be  like  themselves,  and 
it  is  a  very  great  and  wholesome  eye-opener  to  them 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    87 

to  learn  that  Faraday,  Maxwell,  and  a  host  of  other 
masters  of  science  have  been  devoted  to  religion, 
that  Davy,  Maxwell,  and  many  others  living  and 
dead  have  been  poets,  artists,  musicians,  philos- 
ophers, husbands,  fathers,  and  even  men  of  the  world. 
It  is  a  distinct  shock  to  the  youthful  specialist 
of  to-day  to  learn  that  none  of  the  great  scientists 
have  been  specialists  in  early  life.  On  the  con- 
trary, their  interests  often  seem  to  have  been  par- 
ticularly diffuse.  Poetical  imagination  rather  than 
mathematics  seems  to  have  been  a  conspicuous 
foundation  in  many  of  them.  Huxley  was  a  great 
reader  of  novels,  and  Simon  Newcomb  wrote  one. 
It  is  well  that  a  young  man  before  he  goes  into 
high-school  teaching  should  get  over  his  cant  about 
scientific  accuracy  and  truthfulness,  and  learn  that 
the  physicists  are  no  better  and  no  worse  than  other 
people,  no  more  accurate  and  no  more  reliable  in 
their  judgments  when  outside  of  their  particular 
field.  A  man  trained  to  scientific  conservatism  in 
one  subject  may  be  a  wildcat  in  some  other. 

If  one  would  really  know  what  is  the  condition 
of  things  at  the  present  time  in  which  he  is  living 
and  what  is  to  be  the  condition  of  things  in  the 
near  future,  for  which  he  should  prepare  to  live, 
let  him  regard  more  than  the  ephemeris  of  to-day. 
He  should  study  the  trend  of  the  recent  past  and 
thus  divine  both  the  true  present  and  the  near 
future.  Let  us  see  what  authors  of  text-books  and 
other  persons  who  have  commanded  more  or  less 
attention  have  to  say  about  vitalizing  the  teaching 
of  physics  by  the  use  of  practical  applications  and 


88  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

interpretations  of  the  phenomena  of  everyday  life; 
about  the  use  of  the  inductive  method ;  about  the 
infusion  of  mathematics  into  physics ;  about  quanti- 
tative work ;  about  lectures ;  about  simplification 
of  the  subject  and  of  the  apparatus. 

In  1857,  in  the  preface  of  his  Natural  Philosophy, 
Wells  wrote : 

"The  principles  of  physical  science  are  so  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  arts  and  occupations  of  everyday  life,  with  our 
very  existence  and  continuance  as  sentient  beings,  that  public 
opinion  at  the  present  time  imperatively  demands  that  the  course 
of  instruction  in  this  subject  shall  be  as  full,  thorough,  and  com- 
plete as  opportunity  and  time  will  permit.  The  author  has  en- 
deavored to  render  the  work  eminently  practical,  the  illustrations 
and  examples  have  been  derived,  in  most  cases,  from  familiar 
and  common  objects.'* 

Of  the  fifty  or  more  high-school  texts  which  have 
been  written  during  the  past  fifty  years,  there  is 
scarcely  one  that  has  not  reiterated  this  sentiment 
in  its  preface.  When,  however,  we  come  to  look 
into  the  body  of  the  text  we  are  invariably  disap- 
pointed. Those  who  have  written  during  the  last 
fifteen  years  have  noticeably  been  circumscribed 
in  this  matter.  Wells  under  the  head  of  "Strength 
of  Materials"  gives  an  interesting  and  illuminating 
account  covering  eight  pages.  Hollow  bones  of 
animals,  hollow  stalks  of  grains,  and  hollow  columns 
in  buildings  are  discussed  among  other  interesting 
things.  Within  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  how- 
ever, the  exigencies  of  college  preparation  have  sub- 
stituted for  all  this  a  laboratory  exercise  in  which  each 
pupil  attempts  to  find  the  number  of  grams  required 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    89 

to  break  a  piece  of  small  wire.  We  certainly  need 
common-sense  instruction  about  strength  of  ma- 
terial. Many  a  man  has  stripped  the  screw  thread 
from  some  fine  piece  of  apparatus  before  he  learned 
that  brass  was  a  softer  metal  than  steel  and  could 
not  be  safely  handled  with  a  monkey  wrench.  To 
many  persons  all  metals  are  hard  and  strong  and 
able  to  stand  any  abuse,  until  they  have  learned  to 
the  contrary  by  some  unnecessarily  bitter  experi- 
ence. Certainly  whatever  we  may  profess  in  the 
prefaces  of  our  text-books,  we  are  actually  doing 
less  in  our  schools  to-day  than  we  did  fifty  years 
ago  to  make  sciences  minister  to  the  needs  of  our 
common  life.  The  fact  that  it  requires  a  pull  of 
a  certain  number  of  grams  to  break  a  piece  of  No. 
24  brass  wire  is  of  no  concern  to  any  of  us  —  not 
even  to  the  bridge  builder.  It  would  seem  that 
laboratory  teachers,  like  kindergarten  folks,  have 
been  at  much  pains  to  invent  "busy  work." 

Previous  to  1870  there  was  much  in  the  way  of 
"philosophical  apparatus"  in  the  schools,  and  in 
the  hands  of  many  a  skillful  demonstrator  and  true 
teacher  it  served  admirably  to  make  knowledge 
real.  As  early  as  1837  the  city  of  Boston  furnished 
each  of  its  grammar  schools  with  a  set  of  physical 
apparatus  costing  $275  for  each  set.  A  similar 
set  was  to  be  found  in  most  of  the  academies  of  the 
country  about  that  time,  and  there  are  a  large 
number  of  persons  now  living  who  are  both  capable 
and  willing  to  testify  that  they  received  more  that 
was  worth  while  from  the  instruction  given  with 
the  aid  of  that  apparatus  than  our  high  schools  of 


90  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

to-day  are  giving  under  the  college  entrance  require- 
ments. 

Between  1870  and  1880,  much  was  said  about 
the  value  of  individual  laboratory  work  and  the  use 
of  the  inductive  method.  In  1872  Eliot  and  Storer 
in  the  preface  to  their  Elementary  Manual  of  Chem- 
istry wrote : 

"The  authors'  object  is  to  facilitate  the  teaching  of  chemistry 
by  the  experimental  and  inductive  method,  to  develop  and  disci- 
pline the  observing  faculties." 

Storer  and  Lindsley  somewhat  later  said : 

"The  student  acquaints  himself  with  facts  and  principles 
through  attentive  use  of  his  own  perceptive  faculties." 

From  1873  to  1878,  Steele  wrote  in  his  prefaces 
to  books  on  chemistry  and  physics : 

"Unusual  importance  is  given  to  that  practical  part  of  chemi- 
cal knowledge  which  concerns  our  everyday  life."  "A  closer 
relation  between  school  room,  kitchen,  farm,  and  shop."  "The 
author  has  used  simple  language  and  practical  illustrations 
(and  the  student)  is  at  once  led  out  into  real  life.  From  the 
multitude  of  principles,  only  those  have  been  selected  which 
are  essential  to  the  information  of  every  well-read  person." 
"Aim  to  lead  young  persons  to  become  lovers  and  interpreters 
of  nature."  "Simple  experiments  within  the  reach  of  every 
pupil  at  home."  "The  text-book  only  introduces  the  student 
to  a  subject  which  he  should  seek  every  opportunity  to  pursue." 
"As  far  as  possible  every  question  and  principle  should  be  sub- 
mitted to  nature  for  a  direct  answer  by  means  of  an  experiment." 

And  in  no  other  books  have  I  found  the  text  ful- 
filling so  completely  the  promise  of  the  preface,  as 
in  his. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    91 

In  1881,  Avery's  Chemistry  said :  "  As  far  as  possi- 
ble the  experiments  are  to  be  performed  by  the  pupil 
rather  than  for  him."  In  1882,  Gage's  Physics  had 
stamped  upon  the  cover  "  Read  nature  in  the  lan- 
guage of  experiment."  The  preface  quotes  from 
Superintendent  Seaver  of  Boston : 

"The  mind  gains  a  real  and  adequate  knowledge  of  things 
only  in  the  presence  of  the  things  themselves." 

Gage  remarks  that  chemistry  has  been  taught 
by  the  laboratory  method  for  twenty  years,  and 
urges  the  introduction  of  laboratory  work  in  physics. 
In  the  English  High  School  in  Boston,  he  had  with 
$300  furnished  a  laboratory  which  answered  the 
requirements  of  a  large  school.  He  proposes  fifteen 
as  the  size  of  a  laboratory  class  and  five  experi- 
ments in  an  hour  —  twelve  minutes  to  an  experi- 
ment including  the  writing  of  the  notes  upon  the 
same.  Gage  stood  for  greatly  simplified  apparatus. 

"  Laboratory  practice  and  didactic  study  should  go  hand  in 
hand,  and  divide  the  time  with  one  another  about  equally."  "  So 
far  as  practicable,  experiments  precede  the  statements  of  defini- 
tions and  laws,  and  the  latter  are  not  given  until  the  pupil  is 
prepared,  by  previous  observation  and  discussion,  to  frame  them 
for  himself." 

Trowbridge,  head  of  the  Department  of  Physics  at 
Harvard,  in  his  high-school  text-book  in  1884  said : 

"The  writer  believes  that  the  necessary  amount  of  geometry 
and  trigonometry  (for  the  study  of  physics)  can  be  taught  at 
about  one  sitting." 

"It  is  necessary  for  the  student  of  science  to  obtain  a  certain 
balance  of  judgment,  and  to  cultivate  a  certain  scientific  in- 
stinct." 


92  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

"Physics  should  not  be  made  a  means  of  teaching  mathe- 
matics. I  have,  therefore,  substituted  experimental  problems 
for  the  mathematical  problems  which  are  usually  given  in 
treatises  on  natural  philosophy,  in  the  hope  of  cultivating  the 
scientific  instinct." 

"The  natural  progress  of  our  study  of  any  subject  is  from  the 
qualitative,  or  the  comparatively  rough  evidence  of  our  senses, 
to  the  quantitative." 

"The  author  recommends  that  from  one  to  two  lectures  be 
given  during  the  week.  In  these  lectures  the  experiment  should 
be  performed  which  the  students  afterward  perform  themselves 
in  the  laboratory." 

Hall  and  Bergen,  1891 : 

Previous  to  1886  candidates  for  entrance  to  the 
freshman  class  at  Harvard  had  been  examined  on 
text-book  work  only.  In  this  year  a  laboratory 
requirement  was  added. 

"An  attempt  was  made  to  bring  together  such  experiments  as 
would  have  the  most  frequent  and  important  application  in 
ordinary  life." 

Hall  and  Bergen,  revised  and  enlarged  edition, 
1897: 

"The  instruction  should  direct  especial  attention  to  the  illus- 
trations and  applications  of  physical  laws  to  be  found  in  every- 
day life." 

"The  pupils'  laboratory  work  should  give  practice  in  the  ob- 
servation and  explanation  of  physical  phenomena." 

Hall  suggests  simple  apparatus.  He  proposes 
about  $1000  to  equip  a  laboratory  with  apparatus 
for  twelve  workers  and  for  teachers'  demonstrations. 

Carhart  and  Chute,  1892  : 

"The  laboratory  method  has  come  in  during  the  past  decade." 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    93 

They  describe  very  clearly  how  the  inductive  method 
or  the  attempt  at  it  results  in  failure. 

"A  few  years  ago  it  seemed  necessary  to  urge  upon  teachers 
the  adoption  of  laboratory  methods  to  illustrate  the  text-book ; 
in  not  a  few  instances  it  would  now  seem  almost  necessary  to 
urge  the  use  of  a  text-book  to  render  intelligible  the  chaotic 
work  of  the  laboratory." 

"The  pupil  should  be  kept  in  his  class-work  well  ahead  of 
the  subjects  forming  the  basis  of  his  laboratory  experiments." 

Avery,  1895 : 

"The  class-room  work  must  be  kept  ahead  of  the  laboratory 
work;  i.e.,  the  pupil  must  come  to  the  laboratory  with  some 
knowledge  of  the  principles  involved  in  the  work  that  he  is  re- 
quired to  perform." 

He  does  not  appear  to  think  that  high-school  pu- 
pils can  work  by  the  inductive  method. 

Cooley,  1897 : 

"The  student  should  study  the  text-book  before  entering  the 
laboratory." 

The  order  recommended  is  : 

"  (1)  Oral  instruction  —  involving  illustrative  experiments. 
(2)  The  study  of  a  text-book.  (3)  Laboratory  work  to  practice 
experimental  methods  of  reaching  or  testing  truth." 

Crew,  1899 : 

"Physics,  in  too  many  of  our  schools,  ranks  as  a  most  difficult 
subject.  But  dealing,  as  it  does,  with  the  familiar  phenomena 
of  daily  life,  and  requiring,  as  it  does,  only  a  small  fraction  of  the 
algebraic  knowledge  which  the  average  student  has  already  ac- 
quired, the  author  is  inclined  to  believe  that  the  difficulty  lies 
chiefly  in  the  presentation." 


94  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

"An  elementary  presentation  of  physics  should  begin  by 
resuming  what  might  be  called  the  experience  of  the  average 
lad  of  sixteen  years.  The  number  of  physical  facts  which  a  boy 
of  this  age  has  accumulated  is  astounding.  Seldom,  indeed, 
does  the  instructor  appeal  to  him  in  vain  for  a  verification  of  an 
elementary  fact.  The  demand  therefore  is  not  so  much  for  new 
facts,  or  for  sheer  facts  of  any  kind,  as  for  an  orderly  arrange- 
ment and  an  ability  to  use  these  facts." 

Hortvet,  1899 : 

"It  is  found  in  practice  that  the  purely  inductive  method  fails 
at  points  where  it  is  expected  to  do  the  greatest  amount  of 
good." 

Torrey,  Chemistry,  1899 : 

"Chemistry  has  suffered  from  the  irrepressible  wave  of  labora- 
tory madness  which  has  swept  over  the  whole  educational  world." 

"Nothing  too  severe  can  be  said  against  the  mechanical  and 
demoralizing  system  of  note-books  with  'operation,'  'observa- 
tion,' and  'inference'  headings.  They  are  wholesale  breeders  of 
dishonest  and  superficial  work." 

Thwing,  1900 : 

"Laboratory  work  should  follow  the  study  of  text." 

Henderson  and  Woodhull,  1900  : 

"Physics  should  be  so  taught  as  to  be  a  desirable  and  even 
essential  subject  for  every  pupil  in  the  secondary  schools." 

"The  relations  of  physics  on  all  sides  to  human  life  and  human 
interests  have  been  emphasized." 

"The  laboratory  deals  with  inductions  and  verifications,  and 
its  chief  purpose  is  to  make  knowledge  real" 

"  Both  laboratory  and  classroom  work  are  essential  to  a  cor- 
rect knowledge  of  elementary  physics,  and  they  should  correlate." 

"Portraits  and  brief  sketches  of  men  who,  by  their  researches, 
have  contributed  much  to  our  knowledge  of  physics  have  been 
introduced." 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    95 

Slate,  1902 : 

"My  experience  proves  beyond  reasonable  doubt  that  elemen- 
tary instruction  in  physics  suffers  where  contact  with  phenomena 
and  with  experimental  methods  is  confined  to  a  small  group  of 
quantitative  experiments ;  the  possibilities  of  the  class  (lecture  ?) 
experiment  have  not  been  fully  exploited." 

"Instead  of  feeding  them  with  crumbs  from  the  specialists' 
table,  physics  for  the  school  must  be  treated  in  relation  to  the 
average  boy  and  girl,  approaching  the  threshold  of  active  life." 

Holden,  The  Sciences,  1902 : 

"Main  object,  to  help  the  child  to  understand  the  material 
world  about  him.  Why  should  not  natural  phenomena  be  com- 
prehended by  the  child?" 

"It  is  not  possible  to  explain  every  detail  of  a  locomotive,  but 
it  is  perfectly  practicable  to  explain  its  general  principles." 

"The  plan  is  to  waken  the  imagination;  to  convey  useful 
knowledge ;  excite  a  living  and  lasting  interest  in  the  world  that 
lies  about  us." 

"Familiar  phenomena  are  referred  to  their  fundamental 
causes." 

Andrews  and  Rowland,  1903  : 

"We  have  sought  to  make  prominent  the  practical  bearings  of 
physics.  To  those  students  at  least  whose  schooling  ends  with 
the  high  school,  physics  should  be  a  connecting  link  between  their 
study  and  their  work.  Except  in  special  cases  it  bears  more 
on  the  daily  affairs  of  life  than  any  other  subject." 

Bits  of  history  are  introduced  to  show  the  close  re- 
lation between  the  science  of  physics  and  human  life. 

"The  student  should  constantly  keep  in  mind  that  the  data  of 
physics  are  much  easier  to  remember  if  they  are  interpreted  in 
terms  of  past  experiences,  everyday  events,  and  that  such  in- 
terpretations are  far  more  valuable  than  the  mere  acquisition  of 
data." 


96  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

Mann  and  Twiss,  1905  : 

"The  aim  has  been  to  show  the  student  that  knowledge  of 
physics  enables  him  to  answer  many  of  the  questions  over  which 
he  has  puzzled  long  in  vain." 

"Beginning  arguments  with  inventions,  or  general  observa- 
tions of  phenomena,  may  not  be  the  logical  order,  but  it  is  more 
nearly  the  order  in  which  Nature  herself  teaches,  and  the  result 
of  the  argument  does  not  lose  in  definiteness,  clearness,  or  ac- 
curacy, provided  the  laboratory  is  continually  held  up  as  the 
final  court  of  appeal  where  all  doubtful  questions  are  settled." 

"Each  chapter  is  a  continuous  argument  toward  some  prin- 
ciple or  principles,  and  the  entire  book  is  an  argument  toward 
the  conclusions  stated  in  the  last  chapter," 

which  are  in  part : 

"It  must  be  clear  to  every  one  who  has  read  this  book  carefully 
that  nature  is  not  a  vast  chaos  of  chance  happenings,  but  a  well 
ordered  and  governed  whole.  When  we  study  thoughtfully  the 
phenomena  about  us,  we  must  realize  that  there  are  some  simple 
and  universal  principles  which  are  manifest  in  them  all.  The 
universe  in  which  we  live  is  a  marvelously  organized  and  gov- 
erned unit  and  we  are  compelled  to  recognize  that  it  could  not 
have  organized  itself  solely  by  the  interaction  of  blind  matter  and 
undirected  motion." 

"The  attempt  is  made  (1)  to  interest  the  student  in  observing 
carefully  and  accurately  first  the  familiar  things  about  him  and 
then  the  things  in  the  laboratory ;  (2)  to  interest  him  in  detect- 
ing analogies  and  similarities  among  the  things  observed ;  (3)  to 
train  him  in  keeping  his  mind  free  from  bias  and  in  drawing 
conclusions  tentatively ;  (4)  to  make  him  see  the  value  of  verify- 
ing the  conclusions  and  accepting  the  result  whether  it  confirms 
or  denies  his  inference." 

"  We  have  tried  deliberately  to  give  the  student  the  impression 
that  science  leads  to  no  absolute  results  —  that,  at  best,  it  is 
merely  a  question  of  close  approximation ;  of  doing  the  best  we 
can,  and  accepting  the  result  tentatively,  until  we  can  do  better. 
This  attitude  places  the  teacher  also  in  the  position  of  a  learner 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    97 

and  prohibits  him  from  making  use  of  didactic  or  dogmatic  state- 
ments ;  for  these  are  the  bane  of  science  as  well  as  of  other  things. 
Science  instruction  that  does  not  develop  mental  integrity, 'free- 
dom of  the  personal  judgment,  and  tolerance,  fails  in  a  vital  spot." 
"References  are  given  to  books  in  which  the  biographies  of  the 
great  men  of  science  may  be  read,  and  the  student  is  urged  to 
read  them  and  report.  The  arguments  used  by  some  of  the  great 
thinkers  have  been  briefly  sketched,  and  the  methods  devised  by 
them  for  reaching  conclusions  have  been  given.  The  attempt  has 
been  made  to  present  them  as  they  live  in  the  ideas  which  they 
have  handed  down  to  us ;  to  picture  their  mental  processes  and 
attitudes,  and  to  show  how  one  thing  leads  to  another  as  the  sub- 
ject develops  in  the  discoverer's  mind." 

Coleman,  1906 : 

"The  subject  matter  has  been  selected  with  reference  primarily 
to  its  value  as  a  part  of  a  general  education,  and  includes  an  un- 
usual amount  of  information  based  upon  the  facts  of  our  daily 
experience,  introduced  as  illustrations  and  applications  of  physi- 
cal principles." 

"Physics  deals  largely  with  familiar  natural  phenomena  and 
is  therefore  of  special  interest  and  profit  as  a  part  of  a  general 
education."  "A  very  important  part  of  the  material  is  acquired 
through  the  experiences  of  our  daily  life." 

Milliken  and  Gale,  1906 : 

"The  book  attempts  to  give  a  simple  and  immediate  presenta- 
tion, in  language  which  the  student  already  understands,  of  the 
hows  and  whys  of  the  physical  world  in  which  he  lives." 

"In  the  description  and  illustration  of  physical  appliances  the 
course  has  been  made  unusually  complete  because  that  is  what 
the  student  is  most  eager  to  learn  but  cannot  obtain  from  books 
because  their  language  is  too  technical  for  him." 

The  portraits  of  sixteen  of  the  great  makers  of 
physics  have  been  inserted  "for  the  sake  of  adding 
human  and  historic  interest." 


98  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

William  Allanach,  Elementary  Lessons  in  Mag- 
netism and  Electricity,  London,  1906 : 

"The  author  believes  that  the  tendency  in  some  recent  books 
of  striving  for  apparently  accurate  results  so  as  to  appeal  to  the 
student,  is  much  to  be  deprecated,  resulting  as  it  frequently  does 
in  'fancy'  experiments  which  give  a  spurious  semblance  of  ac- 
curacy. A  little  careful  and  honest  thinking  is  worth  much  of  it . " 

Hoadley,  1908 : 

"Especial  effort  has  been  made  to  lay  proper  emphasis  upon 
the  application  of  physics  in  everyday  life." 

"Simple  apparatus.  Most  of  the  experiments  are  for  demon- 
stration to  the  class,  performed  by  teacher  or  chosen  pupils." 

"With  a  superabundance  of  excellent  material  within  the 
scope  of  elementary  physics,  there  would  seem  to  be  no  valid 
reason  for  spending  the  first  days  in  the  laboratory  on  manipu- 
lation and  measurement  with  vernier  and  micrometer  calipers, 
the  diagonal  scale,  the  spherometer,  etc.,  as  is  sometimes  done 
with  no  physics  in  sight." 

"The  more  simply  and  directly  a  physical  problem  is  pre- 
sented to  the  pupil  the  better,  that  his  thoughts  and  attention 
may  not  be  diverted  from  the  real  point  at  issue.  This  principle 
is  especially  applicable  in  the  early  part  of  the  laboratory  course, 
where  it  is  most  frequently  and  more  seriously  violated  by  the  use 
of  micrometric  instruments,  the  Jolly  balance,  etc.,  in  the  work  on 
density  and  specific  gravity,  even  before  the  pupil  has  had  practice 
in  the  simpler  methods  of  measuring  and  weighing.  It  would 
seem  as  if  the  express  purpose  of  such  work  were  at  the  outset 
to  throw  as  many  obstacles  in  the  way  of  progress  in  physics  as 
the  ingenuity  of  teachers  and  instrument  makers  could  devise." 

"Perhaps  the  most  striking  illustration  of  what  should  not  be 
done  in  this  respect  is  afforded  by  the  familiar  quantitative  ex- 
periments on  the  breaking  strength  of  wires  and  on  elasticity  of 
stretching,  bending,  and  twisting.  These  experiments  lead  abso- 
lutely to  nothing  in  most  high-school  courses.  The  laws  with 
which  they  deal  are,  for  the  most  part,  not  considered  in  ele- 
mentary text-books." 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    99 

"The  qualitative  experimental  study  of  phenomena  rightly  de- 
serves a  large  place  in  an  elementary  physics  course.  Economy 
of  time  and  equipment,  convenience,  and  the  advantage  of  the 
superior  skill  of  the  teacher,  are  considerations  in  favor  of  pre- 
senting much  of  this  material  in  the  form  of  class-room  experi- 
ments ;  but  in  a  great  many  instances  the  laboratory  experiment, 
affording,  as  it  does,  immediate  sense  perception  of  the  phenom- 
ena in  their  simplest  aspects  and  at  close  range,  is  greatly  su- 
perior to  any  experiment  viewed  at  a  distance,  and  a  laboratory 
course  which  fails  to  take  this  into  account  is  necessarily  one- 
sided and  incomplete." 

"Experiments  should  be  regarded  as  a  limited  inquiry  into  the 
facts  at  first  hand,  not  as  sources  of  adequate  data  for  generali- 
zation by  the  pupil,  nor  as  'verifications'  of  the  laws  and  prin- 
ciples stated  in  the  text.  The  pupil's  experiment  is  not  a  proof  of 
the  law,  but  an  aid  to  the  right  understanding  of  it." 

"What  the  pupil  really  does  is  to  perform  an  experiment  which 
within  a  fair  degree  of  accuracy,  illustrates  or  exemplifies  the 
law ;  and  he  does  this  in  order  that  he  may  the  better  understand 
it,  not  because  the  law  is  in  need  of  'verification.'" 

"To  encourage  the  pupil  to  draw  hasty  and  unwarranted  con- 
clusions from  insufficient  data  is  a  vicious  practice." 

Adams,  1908 : 

"Physics  deals  with  phenomena  in  which  every  child  is  in- 
terested; it  treats  of  subjects  with  which  all  men  and  women 
have  more  or  less  to  do  in  practical  life." 

Crew  and  Jones,  1909  : 

"Appeal  to  the  everyday  experience  not  only  of  boys  but  also 
of  girls  —  show  them  physics  as  a  science  of  daily  life  —  assist 
the  pupil  in  explaining  the  material  phenomena  of  the  world 
about  him." 

It  is  interesting  to  turn  back  and  see  what  views 
were  expressed  on  the  teaching  of  physics  nearly  a 
century  ago. 


100  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

Elements  of  Physics  by  Dr.  Neil  Arnott,  London, 
was  written  the  same  year  that  Faraday  inaugurated 
his  celebrated  lectures  to  children  at  the  Royal  In- 
stitution (1826-27).  The  introduction  contains  the 
following : 

"Mathematics  are  at  present  generally  made  the  beginning  of 
the  study,  and  the  reason  assigned  is  that  scarcely  any  object  in 
physics  can  be  described  without  referring  to  quantity  or  pro- 
portion, and  therefore,  without  using  mathematical  terms.  Now 
this  is  true ;  but  it  is  equally  true  that  the  mathematical  knowl- 
edge, acquired  by  every  individual  in  the  common  experience  of 
childhood  and  early  youth,  is  sufficient  to  enable  students  to 
understand  all  the  great  laws  of  nature." 

"Most  persons  find  attention  to  pure  or  abstract  mathematics 
as  irksome  as  the  study  of  mere  vocabulary  of  a  language.  This 
explains  why  so  small  a  proportion  of  students,  if  taught  in  the 
common  way,  become  good  mathematicians,  and  why,  where  pure 
mathematics  are  made  the  avenue  to  Natural  Philosophy,  this 
also  is  so  much  neglected.  It  is  remarkable  how  much  the  really 
simple  and  attractive  science  of  comparing  quantities  has  been 
rendered  terrible  to  the  great  mass  of  mankind." 

"The  mode  of  proceeding  is  just  as  if  a  man,  to  whom  per- 
mission were  given  to  enter  and  possess  a  magnificent  garden,  on 
condition  of  his  procuring  a  key  to  open  the  gate  and  measures 
of  all  kinds  to  estimate  the  riches  contained  within,  should  waste 
his  whole  life  on  the  road  in  polishing  one  key,  or  in  procuring 
several  of  different  materials  and  workmanship,  and  in  preparing 
a  multiplicity  of  unnecessary  measures." 

"That  the  importance  of  physics  has  not  been  marked  by  the 
place  which  it  has  held  in  common  systems  of  education,  is  owing 
chiefly  (1)  to  the  misconception  that  a  knowledge  of  technical 
mathematics  was  a  necessary  preliminary,  and  (2)  to  an  opinion 
that  the  degree  of  acquaintance  with  physics  which  all  per- 
sons acquire  by  common  experience,  is  sufficient  for  common 
purposes." 

"To  a  man  who  understands  the  simple  truths  of  physics  very 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    101 


many  phenomena,  which  to  the  uninformed  appear  ip 
are  only  beautiful  illustrations  of  his  fundamental  knowledge  — 
and  this  he  carries  about  with  him,  not  as  an  oppressive  weight, 
but  as  a  charm  supporting  the  weight  of  other  knowledge,  and 
enabling  him  to  add  to  his  valuable  store  every  new  fact  of  con- 
sequence which  may  offer  itself." 

"It  has  been  a  common  prejudice  that  persons  thus  instructed 
in  general  laws  had  their  attention  too  much  divided,  and  could 
know  nothing  perfectly.  The  very  reverse,  however,  is  true  ;  for 
general  knowledge  renders  all  particular  knowledge  more  clear 
and  precise." 

"No  treatise  on  Natural  Philosophy  can  save,  to  a  person  de- 
siring full  information  on  the  subject,  the  necessity  of  attendance 
on  experimental  lectures  or  demonstrations.  Things  that  are 
seen,  and  felt,  and  heard,  that  is,  which  operate  on  the  external 
senses,  leave  on  the  memory  much  stronger,  and  more  correct 
impressions,  than  where  the  conceptions  are  produced  merely  by 
verbal  description,  however  vivid.  And  no  man  has  ever  been 
remarkable  for  his  knowledge  of  physics  who  has  not  had  prac- 
tical familiarity  with  the  objects." 

Among  the  typical  lessons  to  be  found  on  page  134, 
I  have  reproduced,  as  worthy  of  imitation  to-day, 
Arnott's  method  of  presenting  Newton's  third  law. 

Of  the  numerous  books  on  Natural  Philosophy, 
intended  for  school  use,  written  before  Arnott's, 
several  are  of  great  interest,  but  the  only  one  to  be 
mentioned  here  is  that  by  Ferguson  written  about 
seventy-five  years  before  Arnott's  book  —  about 
1750.  This  book  passed  through  many  editions. 
In  1805,  it  was  revised  by  David  Brewster  of  Edin- 
burgh, who  will  be  recalled  as  the  biographer  of 
Sir  Isaac  Newton.  The  next  year  it  was  revised 
and  brought  out  in  America  by  Robert  Patterson, 
Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  at  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania. 


102  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

Brewster  says : 

"The  chief  object  of  Mr.  Ferguson's  labors  was  to  give  a 
familiar  view  of  physical  science  and  to  render  it  accessible  to 
those  who  are  not  accustomed  to  mathematical  investigation." 

"Mr.  Ferguson  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  elementary  writer 
on  natural  philosophy,  and  to  his  labors  we  must  attribute  that 
general  diffusion  of  scientific  knowledge  among  the  practical 
mechanics  of  this  country,  which  has,  in  a  great  measure, 
banished  those  antiquated  prejudices  and  erroneous  maxims 
of  construction  that  perpetually  mislead  the  unlettered  artist." 

"No  book  upon  the  same  subject  has  been  so  generally  read, 
and  so  widely  circulated,  among  all  ranks  of  the  community. 
We  perceive  it  in  the  workshop  of  every  mechanic.  We  find  it 
transferred  into  the  different  encyclopaedias  which  this  country 
has  produced,  and  we  may  easily  trace  it  in  those  popular  systems 
of  philosophy  (natural  philosophy,  i.e.,  physics)  which  have 
lately  appeared." 

Mr.  Ferguson,  although  wholly  a  self-educated 
man  (having  had  only  about  three  months  of  school- 
ing), was  elected  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  London.  His  lectures  were  frequently  attended 
by  the  King,  who  pensioned  him  in  his  later  years. 

"He  possessed  a  clear  judgment  and  was  capable  of  thinking 
and  writing  on  philosophical  subjects  with  great  accuracy  and 
precision.  He  had  a  peculiar  talent  for  simplifying  what  was 
complex,  for  rendering  intelligible,  what  was  abstract,  and  for 
bringing  down  to  the  lowest  capacities  what  was  naturally  above 
them." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Ferguson  devotes 
sixty-two  pages  to  machines  in  those  days  when 
there  were  exceedingly  few  machines,  and  his  treat- 
ment of  the  principles  of  machines  is  surpassingly 
clear ;  whereas  in  our  age  of  machinery  when  every 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE     103 

boy  and  girl  needs  to  know  much  about  the  prin- 
ciples of  machines  and  their  practical  applications 
in  daily  life,  this  subject  is  certainly  most  meagerly 
treated  in  text-books  and  altogether  the  most  poorly 
taught  portion  of  the  whole  subject  of  physics. 

Ferguson  devotes  forty  pages  to  pumps,  and 
although  he  was  writing  before  oxygen  was  dis- 
covered and  before  the  steam  engine  was  invented, 
he  gives  a  most  fascinating  account  of  a  "fire-engine," 
as  he  calls  it,  which,  however,  we  should  call  a  steam 
pump,  or  more  specifically  the  atmospheric  steam 
engine. 

Among  the  typical  lessons  to  be  found  on  pages 
128-131  I  have  thought  it  would  be  not  only  in- 
teresting, but  even  suggestive  of  a  good  method  of 
teaching  a  subject  to-day,  to  reproduce  Ferguson's 
treatment  of  The  Spring  of  the  Air. 

Pestalozzi  died  in  the  year  that  Arnott  wrote 
his  Natural  Philosophy,  and  about  that  same  time 
the  Lessons  on  Objects  written  by  Elizabeth  Mayo 
was  beginning  to  attract  the  attention  of  educators 
in  London. 

These  Object  Lessons  ran  through  fourteen  edi- 
tions in  London  during  the  next  thirty  years,  and 
finally  the  book  was  revised  and  brought  out  in 
this  country  by  Dr.  Sheldon  of  Oswego,  who  had  as 
his  collaborator  Professor  Hermann  Krusi,  also 
teaching  at  Oswego,  but  who  was  born  in  the  school 
of  Pestalozzi,  where  his  father  taught  for  twenty 
years. 

Physics  teaching  in  the  high  schools,  before  the 
colleges  took  a  hand  in  the  matter  in  1886,  was 


104  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

powerfully  influenced  by  this  movement  to  teach 
from  the  object  rather  than  from  the  book  and  to 
take  into  consideration  the  nature  and  requirements 
of  the  pupil  when  making  a  choice  of  matter  and 
method  of  instruction. 

"In  1837  the  School  Committee  of  Boston  ordered  a  few 
articles  of  philosophical  apparatus  to  be  furnished  for  each  of  the 
grammar  schools  of  that  city." 

The  above  appears  in  the  preface  of  A  School 
Compendium  of  Natural  and  Experimental  Philos- 
ophy, written  by  Richard  Green  Parker,  Principal  of 
Johnson  Grammar  School.  The  book  was  written 
to  go  with  the  Boston  set  of  apparatus.  It  contains 
engravings  of  the  apparatus  and  a  description  of 
experiments  to  be  performed  with  it.  This  Boston 
set  consisted  of  nearly  one  hundred  pieces  and  cost 
$275.  The  book  went  through  twenty-two  editions 
in  the  first  twelve  years  and  was  still  being  revised 
as  late  as  1854  at  least. 

Very  respectable  equipment  for  the  teaching  of 
physics  was  to  be  found  in  academies  and  high 
schools  all  over  the  country  soon  after  this  and  there 
were  numerous  firms  (even  more  numerous  than 
now)  in  Boston,  New  York,  and  Philadelphia,  whose 
business  it  was  to  manufacture  and  sell  apparatus 
for  the  schools. 

This  apparatus  was  used  for  demonstration  pur- 
poses by  the  teachers  who  were  usually  the  prin- 
cipals of  the  schools,  and  for  the  most  part  good 
teachers.  They  applied  a  large  amount  of  common 
sense  to  the  teaching  of  physics  and  with  a  large 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE     105 

personal  influence  they  impressed  the  pupils  with 
the  dignity  and  importance  of  the  subject.  There 
are  many  now  living  who  are  in  position  to  speak 
of  the  effect  of  this  instruction  and  compare  it  with 
that  which  now  obtains.  I  am  gathering  such  testi- 
mony and  shall  be  glad  to  hear  from  any  who  may 
read  this. 

That  the  subject  was  very  widely  taught  might 
be  inferred  from  the  great  demand  for  text-books, 
which  appeared  almost  as  frequently  fifty  years  ago 
as  now  and  passed  through  in  some  cases  an  aston- 
ishing number  of  editions.  The  aim  of  the  instruc- 
tion in  physics  fifty  years  ago  was  generally  stated 
to  be  the  interpretation  of  the  natural  phenomena 
of  life.  It  must  be  confessed  that  the  writers  of 
text-books  in  those  days  about  as  often  as  in  these 
days  failed  to  carry  out  this  idea  in  the  body  of 
their  texts.  But  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  teach- 
ers of  those  days,  more  often  than  the  teachers  of 
to-day,  carried  that  purpose  into  effect,  the  chief 
reasons  being  (1)  a  large  proportion  of  them  had 
received  training  directly  from  nature's  school. 
A  goodly  number  of  them  had  college  training,  to 
be  sure,  but  so  far  as  it  had  touched  them  on  the 
side  of  science  it  had  led  them  to  nature  rather  than 
away  from  it.  (2)  They  were  unhampered  in 
their  teaching  by  any  prescription  from  a  higher 
institution  made  in  the  supposed  interests  of  some- 
thing or  somebody  else  than  the  pupils  themselves. 

In  1838,  Olmsted's  Natural  Philosophy  for  Schools 
and  Academies  stated  the  purpose  to  give  an  "ex- 
hibition of  the  principles  of  Natural  Philosophy 


106  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

with  very  copious  applications  of  them  to  the  arts 
and  to  the  phenomena  of  nature." 

In  1847,  Dr.  John  W.  Draper,  Professor  at  New 
York  University,  wrote  his  Natural  Philosophy  for 
Schools.  He  preferred  to  begin  with  air  and  water 
rather  than  mechanics  because  the  latter  "is  a  more 
difficult  and  more  forbidding  subject."  He  says : 

"The  main  object  of  a  teacher  should  be  to  communicate  a 
clear  and  general  view  of  the  great  features  of  his  science,  and 
to  do  this  in  an  agreeable  and  short  manner.  It  is  too  often 
forgotten  that  the  beginner  knows  nothing ;  and  the  first  thing 
to  be  done  is  to  awaken  in  him  an  interest  in  the  study,  and  to 
present  to  him  a  view  of  the  scientific  relations  of  those  natural 
objects  with  which  he  is  most  familiar.  When  his  curiosity  is 
aroused,  he  will  readily  go  through  things  that  are  abstract  and 
forbidding,  which,  had  they  been  presented  at  first,  would  have 
discouraged  or  perhaps  disgusted  him." 

"There  are  two  different  methods  in  which  Natural  Philosophy 
is  now  taught :  (1)  as  an  experimental  science ;  (2)  as  a  branch 
of  mathematics.  I  believe  that  the  proper  course  is  to  teach 
physical  /science  experimentally  first." 

"Why  is  it  that  the  most  acute  mathematicians  and  meta- 
physicians the  world  has  ever  produced  for  two  thousand  years 
made  so  little  advance  in  knowledge,  and  why  have  the  last  two 
centuries  produced  such  a  wonderful  revolution  in  human 
affairs?  It  is  from  the  lesson  first  taught  by  Bacon,  that  so 
liable  to  fallacy  are  the  operations  of  the  intellect,  experiment 
must  always  be  the  great  engine  of  human  discovery,  and,  there- 
fore, of  human  advancement." 

Hooker,  Natural  Philosophy  for  Schools,  1863 : 

"Daniel  Webster,  in  his  autobiography,  speaks  thus  of  his 
entering  upon  the  study  of  law  :  .  ,^ 

"  'I  was  put  to  study  in  the  old  way  —  that  is,  the  hardest 
book  first  —  and  lost  much  time.  I  read  Coke  on  Littleton 
through  without  understanding  a  quarter  of  it.  Happening  to 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    107 

take  up  Espinasse's  "Law  of  Nisi  Prius,"  I  found  I  could  under- 
stand it ;  and  arguing  that  the  object  of  reading  was  to  under- 
stand what  was  written,  I  laid  down  the  venerable  Coke  et  alios 
similes  reverendos,  and  kept  company  for  a  time  with  Mr. 
Espinasse  and  others,  the  most  plain,  easy,  and  intelligible 
writers.  Why  disgust  and  discourage  a  boy  by  telling  him  that 
he  must  break  into  his  profession  through  such  a  wall  as  this ?'" 

"Here  is  most  graphically  depicted  a  defect  which  is  now,  as 
it  was  then,  very  prominent  in  all  departments  of  education." 

"In  the  books  which  are  used  in  teaching  natural  science,  it 
is  especially  prominent.  Even  in  the  elementary  books,  formal 
propositions  and  technical  terms  render  the  study  uninviting,  and 
to  a  great  extent  unintelligible." 

"In  the  whole  course  of  education,  the  natural  sciences  should 
be  made  prominent  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  not  only  be- 
cause they  are  of  practical  value,  but  also  because  they  are  as 
useful  in  their  way  for  mental  discipline  as  the  study  of  mathe- 
matics and  of  language." 

"They  can  be  taught  to  some  extent  to  the  youngest  pupils,  if 
they  be  presented  in  the  right  manner.  And  the  busy  inquiries 
which  they  make  after  the  reasons  of  the  facts,  and  their  appre- 
ciation of  them  if  stated  simply  and  without  technical  terms,  show 
the  appropriateness  of  such  teaching.  Children  are  really  very 
good  philosophers  in  their  way.  They  have  great  activity  not  only 
of  their  perception  but  of  their  reasoning  faculties  also,  to  which 
due  range  should  be  given  in  education.  Not  a  year  should  pass 
during  the  whole  course  when  the  pupil  shall  not  be  engaged 
in  studying  some  one  of  the  physical  sciences  to  some  extent." 

"The  teaching  of  the  natural  sciences  in  our  colleges  is  gener- 
ally a  failure,  and  it  always  will  be  so  as  long  as  the  present  plan 
is  continued.  In  order  to  have  it  successful  there  must  be  the 
same  gradation  in  teaching  them  that  we  have  in  teaching  language 
and  the  mathematics" 

Rolfe  and  Gillet,  1868  : 

"There  is,  as  there  ought  to  be,  a  rapidly  increasing  demand 
on  the  part  of  the  public  that  the  study  of  natural  philosophy 
shall  be  introduced  into  our  Grammar  and  District  Schools." 


108  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

"The  authors  believe  that  the  subject  is  both  such  as  every 
one  ought  to  know  about,  and  such  as  can  be  profitably  treated 
in  a  sufficiently  elementary  form  for  the  use  of  these  schools." 

"The  authors  believe  that  in  teaching  the  sciences  the  aim 
should  be,  not  so  much  to  present  facts  and  the  bare  statement 
of  principles,  as  to  train  the  mind  to  see  how  from  the  simple  facts 
of  observation  we  arrive  at  the  principles  of  science." 

"First  establish  the  facts  by  experiment  and  then  draw  out 
the  principle." 

"Use  simplest  experiments  and  simplest  apparatus." 

"Each  lesson  is  to  be  explained  and  illustrated  with  the  class 
before  being  given  out  to  be  studied." 

There  were  many  other  writers  of  books  of  Natural 
Philosophy  for  the  schools,  but  enough  has  been 
quoted  to  show  the  trend.  In  this  connection  it 
will  be  to  the  point  to  quote  something  from  John 
Tyndall's  lecture  delivered  in  1854  at  the  Royal 
Institution  of  Great  Britain  on  "Physics  as  a  Branch 
of  Education  for  All." 

"The  needs  and  tendencies  of  human  nature  express  them- 
selves through  the  early  yearnings  of  the  child.  He  desires  to 
know  the  character  and  the  causes  of  the  phenomena  presented 
to  him;  and  I  claim  for  the  study  of  Physics  the  recognition 
that  it  answers  to  an  impulse  implanted  by  nature  in  the  human 
constitution,  and  he  who  would  oppose  such  study  must  be 
prepared  to  exhibit  the  credentials  which  authorize  him  to  con- 
travene Nature's  manifest  design." 

"Most  of  the  questions  asked  by  children  concern  natural 
phenomena,  facts  of  everyday  life.  Now  the  fact  is  beyond  the 
boy's  control,  and  so  certainly  is  the  desire  to  know  its  cause. 
The  sole  question  then  is,  Is  this  desire  to  be  gratified  or  not  ? 
Who  created  the  fact?  Who  implanted  the  desire?  Certainly 
not  man  —  and  will  any  man  undertake  to  place  himself  be- 
tween the  mind  and  the  fact,  and  proclaim  a  divorce  between 
them?" 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    109 

"Every  physician  knows  that  something  more  than  mere  me- 
chanical motion  is  comprehended  under  the  idea  of  healthful  ex- 
ercise. What,  for  example,  could  be  substituted  for  the  jubilant 
shout  of  the  playground?  You  may  have  more  systematic 
motions.  You  may  devise  means  for  the  more  perfect  traction 
of  each  particular  muscle,  but  you  cannot  create  the  joy  and 
gladness  of  the  game,  and  where  these  are  absent,  the  charm  and 
the  health  of  the  exercise  are  gone.  The  case  is  similar  with 
mental  education." 

"In  the  study  of  Physics,  induction  and  deduction  are  per- 
petually married  to  each  other." 

The  following  is  from  Thorndike's  Principles  of 
Teaching  (page  157) : 

"The  verification  of  conclusions  is  the  keynote  of  correct  in- 
ductive thinking  in  the  world  at  large,  and  should  be  more  prom- 
inent in  the  school.  The  common  practice  of  children  is  to  accept 
as  true  whatever  the  teacher  does  not  oppose.  This  is  not  so 
bad  as  it  may  seem,  for  'to  be  accepted  by  the  expert'  is  a  sort 
of  verification  well  known  and  not  despised  by  science,  and  to 
the  scholar  the  teacher  stands  'in  loco  experti^  .  .  .  and  recourse 
to  other  authorities  than  the  teacher  provides  useful  experience 
of  the  bulk  of  expert  knowledge  which  is  stored  up  in  diction- 
aries, encyclopedias,  maps,  books,  and  the  like." 

McMurry  in  his  Special  Methods  in  Science,  after 
stating  what  have  been  the  various  aims  in  science 
teaching  (such  as :  teaching  observation ;  under- 
standing and  mastering  the  physical  conditions 
of  life-utility;  mental  discipline;  classification  — 
system  and  law),  proposes  as  a  suitable  aim,  in- 
sight into  nature,  a  sympathetic  appreciation  with  a 
view  to  a  growing  adjustment  to  the  physical  and 
social  environment.  He  adds  : 

"The  intrusive  and  masterful  way  in  which  natural  science 
has  been  coming  into  our  houses,  factories,  and  industries  of  all 


110  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

sorts,  compels  us  to  pay  considerable  attention  to  the  applica- 
tions of  science  to  life." 

The  idea  which  has  been  most  consistently  and 
uniformly  expressed  in  all  the  prefaces  of  text-books 
already  quoted  is  vitalize  the  teaching  of  physics, 
teach  its  applications  to  life.  From  examination 
of  the  texts  themselves  it  appears  to  be  in  the  minds 
of  all  of  the  authors  that  the  method  should  be,  first, 
teach  the  principles,  and  second,  mention  appli- 
cations, as  we  teach  rules  of  grammar  and  illustrate 
by  giving  sentences  from  literature.  At  any  rate, 
so  far  as  any  attempt  to  actually  teach  the  applica- 
tions of  physical  principles  to  life  is  made,  this  is 
the  method  used  and  this  is  precisely  why  the  teach- 
ing of  physics  is  languishing.  The  number  of  so- 
called  principles  has  been  doubled  and  even  quad- 
rupled since  the  days  of  Ferguson  and  Arnott,  and 
the  colleges  at  present  specify  by  syllabus  a  long 
list  of  those  which  the  candidate  must  be  able  to 
demonstrate  like  propositions  in  geometry.  The 
method  of  teaching  physics  —  no  matter  how  much 
laboratory  work  it  may  include  —  does  not  differ 
essentially  from  the  method  of  teaching  geometry. 
Only  the  case  is  worse  for  physics  than  for  geometry. 
For  in  geometry,  there  is  a  mutual  dependence  of 
one  proposition  upon  another,  but  in  physics,  in 
spite  of  the  efforts  of  one  or  two  authors  to  the  con- 
trary, there  never  has  been,  and  I  presume  there 
never  can  be,  an  organized  whole  to  physics  which 
will  appeal  to  the  mind  of  a  high-school  pupil.  The 
fundamental  idea  which  may  be  assumed  to  run 
through  it  all  will  always  be  found  too  subtle  and 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    111 

too  profound  for  his  comprehension.  To  him  Boyle's 
law  is  never  related  to  anything  else  in  physics; 
and  if  on  college  entrance  examination  he  does  not 
state  the  law  of  Charles  for  that  of  Boyle,  it  is  a 
sheer  piece  of  good  luck;  for  that  matter,  if  he 
does  not  make  up  an  entirely  new  law  by  stating 
parts  of  each,  it  is  only  his  good  fortune.  And  why 
should  he  remember  the  vast  number  of  strange 
and  unrelated  facts  or  principles  —  unrelated  to 
each  other  and  unrelated  to  any  experience  in  his 
life?  Even  the  laboratory  illustrations  given  him, 
ostensibly  for  the  purpose  of  throwing  light  on  the 
principles,  are  like  an  attempt  to  define  one  unknown 
word  by  another  equally  unfamiliar. 

Black  and  Davis  hold  that  one  has  always  to  keep 
in  mind  the  capacities  and  limitations,  the  interests 
and  inclinations,  of  young  people.  They  say  that 
in  preparing  their  book  they  tried  to  select  only 
those  topics  which  are  of  vital  interest  to  the  young. 
Everybody,  they  assert,  needs  to  know  something 
about  the  working  of  the  machinery  which  is  found 
in  modern  homes. 

Their  plan  is  to  begin  each  topic  with  some  con- 
crete illustration,  familiar  to  young  people,  proceed 
to  a  deduction  of  the  general  principle,  and  then 
show  how  to  make  use  of  this  principle  by  discussing 
other  practical  applications  of  it. 

The  study  of  physics,  they  believe,  does  not  begin 
and  end  in  the  classroom,  but  is  intimately  con- 
nected with  industrial  and  domestic  life. 

In  order  to  stimulate  in  students  thought  and 
imagination  about  what  they  see,  and  to  get  them 


112  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

into  the  habit  of  asking  intelligent  questions  of 
mechanics,  artisans,  and  engineers  whom  they  meet, 
the  authors  have  added  at  the  end  of  the  chapters 
questions  which  require  some  knowledge  gained  in 
this  way  from  outside  life. 

Now  to  illustrate  each  principle  by  referring  it 
to  some  one  of  life's  experiences  would  be  a  great 
step  in  advance,  but  to  turn  the  method  of  procedure 
around  and  develop  only  such  principles  as  grow 
out  of  and  interpret  life's  experiences  would  be  not 
only  ideal  but,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  only 
method  which  can  be  successful. 

One  cannot  help  thinking  that  if  the  high-school 
teachers  of  the  country  had  been  as  free  to  work  out 
their  method  of  instruction  as  the  elementary-school 
teachers  have  been  during  the  last  twenty  years, 
they  would  have  learned  to  apply  to  physics  the 
modern,  yet  abundantly  tried  and  eminently  success- 
ful, method  of  teaching  language  to  small  children. 

This  matter  is  so  well  stated  by  McMurry  in  his 
Special  Methods  in  Science  that  I  cannot  do  better 
than  to  quote  him.  It  will  be  noticed  that  McMurry 
is  here  speaking  of  the  teaching  of  science  in  the  ele- 
mentary school  —  what  some  call  nature-study ;  but 
I  am  wholly  in  agreement  with  Professor  Bailey 
that  nature-study  is  not  a  new  subject  but  a  new 
mode  of  teaching,  which  is  just  as  applicable  to  the 
high  school  and  the  college  as  to  elementary 
schools. 

"A  child  does  not  want  the  alphabet  (that  is,  the  simple  prin- 
ciples) of  science  any  more  than  he  wants  the  names  of  the  letters 
of  the  alphabet  when  learning  to  read." 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    113 

"What  he  needs  is  to  observe  more  closely  and  to  put  things 
together  for  better  interpretation." 

"There  is  another  great  advantage  in  teaching  science  where 
we  find  it  in  these  centers  of  life's  activity,  and  not  in  some 
isolated  scientific  form  in  laboratories  or  text-books." 

"The  child  who  draws  his  knowledge  of  science  directly  from 
life,  under  normal  conditions,  will  not  have  much  difficulty  in 
finding  it  again  in  life  and  applying  it  to  life.  It  is  not  difficult 
to  so  isolate  the  study  of  physics  and  chemistry  from  the  usual 
conditions  of  life  that  the  student  in  after  years  will  have  more 
difficulty  in  rediscovering  his  knowledge  than  he  had  in  first  ac- 
quiring it.  But  the  child  who  learns  from  the  start  to  trace  facts 
to  their  native  lair  will  recognize  them  again  under  similar  sur- 
roundings. In  the  usual  study  of  the  natural  sciences,  each 
science  centers  its  materials  around  its  leading  principle,  but 
from  the  home  as  a  center  radiate  problems  into  all  the  sciences. 
Ventilation  is  based  on  physics  and  physiology ;  cooking  on 
chemistry  and  several  other  sciences.  House  sanitation  draws 
from  most  of  the  sciences.  Heating  and  lighting  carry  us  into 
several  fields  of  applied  science.  In  later  years  he  may  devote 
himself  to  a  study  and  ordering  of  one  or  more  of  the  separate 
sciences,  but  their  chief  merit  after  all  will  be  the  service  they 
are  able  to  render  to  these  original  centers  of  human  interest. 
If  we  should  take  each  of  the  natural  sciences  as  a  controlling 
center  of  study,  we  should  have  a  complicated  and  difficult,  if 
not  impossible,  course  of  study.  Elementary  science  more 
perhaps  than  any  other  study  is  home-abiding  and  begets 
respect  and  admiration  for  common  things." 

"As  a  rule  teachers  are  over-hasty  in  urging  children  toward 
generalizations.  They  wish  them  to  leap  from  one  or  two  facts 
or  examples  to  important  conclusions  of  classifications." 

"Teachers  and  adults  are  prone  to  give  emphasis  to  general 
laws  far  beyond  what  children  need." 

"The  applications  of  science  to  life  have  so  transformed  our 
surroundings  that  we  live  in  a  very  different  world  from  that  of 
fifty  years  ago.  To  live  properly  in  this  new  world  is  to  under- 
stand it,  to  fit  into  it  and  to  make  the  best  use  of  it.  Since  the 
changes  are  due  chiefly  to  scientific  inventions  and  improvements, 


114  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

progress  in  education  calls  for  a  direct  and  more  partial  acquaint- 
ance with  sciences  by  common  people." 

"The  problem  of  object  and  experiment  teaching  is  the  most 
highly  recommended  and  the  least  successfully  practiced  phase 
of  instruction.  The  freedom  and  confidence  with  which  teachers, 
high  and  low,  recommend  observational  and  experimental  science, 
and  the  modesty  and  scarcity  of  those  who  succeed  in  such  teach- 
ing is  an  illustration  of  the  wide  breach  between  enthusiastic 
theory  and  successful  practice." 

Dr.  James  E.  Russell  in  the  December,  1909,  issue 
of  the  Educational  Review  says : 

"Bookish  work  when  properly  understood  is  above  criticism. 
In  so  far  as  the  aim  of  learning  is  to  acquire  knowledge  there  is 
no  good  reason  for  spending  an  hour  in  manipulation  when  the 
fact  may  be  as  well  taught  without  it  in  a  minute." 

I  am  very  sure  that  a  large  portion  of  the  hours 
now  spent  in  the  laboratory  might  with  profit  all 
around  be  contracted  to  an  equal  number  of  minutes 
spent  with  books,  but  better  than  that  they  might 
be  much  expanded  and  profitably  expended  in  get- 
ting together,  comparing,  and  explaining  the  experi- 
ences which  pupils  have  or  may  have  under  proper 
guidance. 

Let  there  be,  however,  vastly  more  —  ten  times 
as  much  —  reading  on  the  subject  as  now.  Let 
there  still  be  a  laboratory  for  personal  contact  with 
things  and  for  large  measurements  —  pounds  and 
feet  —  such  as  ordinary  people  use. 

The  quantitative  treatment  of  the  subject  belongs 
quite  as  much  to  the  lecture  as  to  the  laboratory. 
The  process  of  vitalizing  physics  gets  small  assistance 
from  the  conventional  laboratory  work  —  indeed, 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    115 

the  demonstration  of  physical  principles  is  not  much 
forwarded  by  the  laboratory  measurements.  It  is 
not  only  possible,  but  usual,  that  students  lose  the 
rationale  of  the  whole  subject  under  consideration 
by  laboratory  work  which  has  lost  none  of  its  dis- 
tractions in  the  recent  attempts  to  make  it  rigorous. 

I  am  sure  that  Draper  was  right  when  he  said 
that  the  subjects  with  which  to  begin  the  teaching  of 
physics  are  water  and  air.  A  considerable  portion 
of  that  which  usually  precedes  this  subject  should 
be  omitted  from  a  high-school  course  and  much  of 
the  rest  should  be  brought  in  incidentally  and 
scattered  among  the  other  subjects.  What  remains 
might  form  a  later  chapter. 

Suppose  with  a  class  in  a  city  school  we  begin  the 
work  by  taking  up  the  problem  —  the  very  large 
problem  —  of  supplying  suitable  water  to  people 
who  dwell  in  a  crowded  community.  New  York, 
for  example,  needs  more  water  than  falls  in  the 
whole  Croton  watershed  of  300  square  miles. 
We  must  go  as  far  as  the  Catskills  to  get  a  supply 
that  is  sufficiently  abundant  and  sufficiently  pure. 
The  newspapers  have  set  forth  the  facts  and  have 
said  much  about  the  engineering  feats  of  this  under- 
taking. The  physics  teacher  must  enable  the  future 
citizens  to  gain  some  idea  of  them.  For  example, 
the  aqueduct  must  be  carried  under  the  Hudson, 
and  in  order  to  find  a  firm  bottom  it  must  go  down 
1100  feet  below  the  water  level  of  the  river.  Now 
the  weight  of  that  water  is  about  15  pounds  per 
square  inch  for  each  34  feet  of  depth,  or  about  45 
pounds  per  square  inch  for  each  100  feet  of  depth 


116  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

and  therefore  about  500  pounds  per  square  inch  at  a 
depth  of  1100  feet.  The  method  of  determining  the 
ratio  of  pressure  to  depth  should  be  quickly  shown 
by  a  lecture  experiment  and  it  will  naturally  be  often 
referred  to  afterward  so  as  to  be  well  understood  and 
not  easily  forgotten. 

I  once  lived  in  a  house  where  although  the  water 
pressure  was  great  the  pipes  were  so  small  that  not 
more  than  one  faucet  could  be  used  successfully  at 
one  time.  If  some  one  was  drawing  water  in  the 
laundry-tubs,  it  was  useless  to  try  to  get  water  to 
flow  from  the  faucet  at  the  bath-tub.  Show  this 
fall  in  pressure  along  a  water  pipe  as  an  increasing 
number  of  faucets  are  opened,  by  putting  a  pressure 
gauge  on  one  of  the  faucets  and  noting  its  behavior 
as  each  succeeding  faucet  is  opened.  Quite  inci- 
dentally, compare  this  with  the  fall  in  potential 
along  an  electric  circuit  as  additional  lamps  are 
turned  on,  and  later  refer  to  this  again  when  teach- 
ing electricity.  This  continual  cross  reference  and 
repetition  is  of  the  utmost  importance.  We  do  not 
learn  things  once  for  all. 

Now  this  fall  in  pressure  introduces  our  most 
difficult  problem  in  the  distribution  of  city  water. 
Although  our  aqueduct  will  be  a  larger  tube  than  the 
subway  tunnel,  and  our  city  water  mains  are  four  or 
five  feet  in  diameter,  it  will  be  very  difficult  to  get 
the  water  to  flow  through  them  fast  enough  to  meet 
the  demand,  and  so  pumps  must  be  used  to  assist 
the  flow.  Our  reservoir  at  High  Bridge  is  about 
150  feet  above  our  basement  at  Teachers  College.  We 
go  down  jnto  the  basement  and  read  the  pressure 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    117 

gauge  and  find  it  only  30  pounds  per  square  inch 
when  it  would  be  67  pounds  if  we  were  the  only 
persons  to  draw  water  from  the  mains.  So  great  is 
the  draught  of  water  from  the  mains  that  the  fall  of 
pressure  (fall  of  potential)  is  37  (67-30)  pounds  per 
square  inch  in  coming  a  little  more  than  two  miles. 
This  fall  in  pressure  has  greatly  increased  as  the 
city  has  grown  up  around  us. 

Within  the  building  also  the  pressure  on  certain 
faucets  has  fallen  from  8  pounds  to  2  pounds  per 
square  inch  because  of  the  increase  in  the  number 
of  students  and  the  consequent  increase  in  the  use 
of  water. 

It  is  quite  similar  with  the  electric  conductors. 
The  lamps  of  a  certain  lecture  room  once  had  110 
volts  of  electric  pressure,  whereas  now  they  fre- 
quently have  not  more  than  105  volts. 

The  time  was  when  water  would  flow  of  its  own 
accord  at  my  lecture  table  on  the  fourth  floor,  but 
now  it  would  seldom  reach  the  second  floor  if  it  was 
not  helped  by  a  pump.  The  question  of  whether 
water  presses  equally  in  all  directions  will  not  be 
raised  by  the  pupils  at  this  point  and  had  better 
not  be  injected  too  soon,  but  let  attention  be  called 
to  it  incidentally  a  little  later,  not  by  the  usual 
formal  demonstration,  but  as  a  fact  which  has  been 
demonstrated  every  time  we  have  read  the  pressure 
gauge. 

The  physics  teacher  should  teach  hygiene  quite 
as  much  as  the  biology  teacher  does,  and  he  should 
teach  chemistry  whenever  he  gets  a  chance,  whether 
he  is  nominally  the  chemistry  teacher  or  not.  The 


118  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

water  filters  demand  his  attention  on  all  of  these 
counts  :  What  they  mean  to  health ;  How  they  save 
the  steam  boilers ;  How  they  obviate  plumbing 
difficulties ;  What  alum  is  needed  for ;  etc. 

The  physics  teacher  should  teach  about  all  sorts 
of  mechanisms;  as,  for  example,  water  meters, 
pressure  gauges,  etc.  Buoyancy  and  Archimedes' 
principle  will  be  suggested  somewhere  about  this 
time,  and  should  have  many  lecture-room  demon- 
strations and  many  individual  laboratory  experi- 
ments to  make  the  matter  a  real  experience.  Specific 
gravity  is  not  worthy  of  all  the  attention  that  is  now 
given  to  it.  It  had  better  not  be  brought  into  this 
chapter  at  all,  and  in  any  case  it  should  not  be 
treated  in  the  minute  way  which  is  usual.  This 
exceedingly  simple  matter  is  generally  obscured 
by  being  mixed  up  with  buoyancy  and  paraffined 
blocks  and  lead  sinkers  and  whatnot,  which  have  no 
natural  connection  with  it.  Many  days  are  spent 
in  working  on  experiments  and  on  arithmetical  prob- 
lems apparently  devised  as  "busy  work"  to  "hold 
down"  the  students  lest  they  play. 

I  was  conversing  recently  with  an  intelligent 
builder  about  how  much  a  certain  wagonload  of 
Georgia  pine  weighed,  and  he  settled  the  matter 
by  sawing  off  a  block  one  foot  long  from  a  timber 
which  was  four  inches  square  at  the  end,  and  weigh- 
ing it.  He  found  that  the  block  weighed  five  pounds, 
and  from  this  he  quickly  calculated  the  weight  of 
his  load.  I  remarked  that  he  had  incidentally 
found  the  specific  gravity  of  the  wood  to  be  about 
three-quarters,  and  he  said,  "  Well  I  should  never 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    119 

have  suspected  that.  When  I  studied  physics  we 
made  that  a  very  complex  matter  which  I  never 
understood." 

I  suggested  to  him  that  the  fact  that  a  cubic  foot 
of  water  weighs  62.5  pounds  and  that  spruce  timber 
is  usually  about  half  as  heavy,  while  granite  and 
most  other  kinds  of  rock  are  about  2.5  as  heavy  as 
water,  would  be  very  useful  to  remember.  For 
instance,  this  enables  us  to  quickly  calculate  that  a 
granite  paving  block  12  X  6  X  4  inches  must  weigh 
about  26  pounds,  and  that  200  of  them  would  make 
a  heavy  load  for  a  team  of  horses  on  a  good  road. 

Some  reader  has  by  this  time  queried  whether 
our  intention  is  to  amuse  and  entertain  the  pupils 
and  to  relax  their  work.  My  purpose  is  to  get 
more  work  and  more  intelligent  work  than  we  find 
now  in  our  school  laboratories.  If  the  work  is  of 
absorbing  and  compelling  interest,  so  much  the 
better.  I  like  to  see  high-school  pupils  work.  They 
like  to  work.  Three-quarters  of  all  the  pupils  who 
enter  the  high  schools  of  this  country  drop  out  dur- 
ing the  course  because  they  are  tired  of  loafing  and 
want  to  go  to  work.  Give  them  something  worth 
while  to  do  and  they  will  remain  in  school  to  work. 

In  order  that  we  may  examine  the  action  of  pumps, 
traps,  "back-air"  pipes,  pressure  tanks,  hydraulic 
elevators,  injectors,  gas  meters,  etc.,  etc.,  we  need 
to  get  an  appreciation  that  air  has  weight  and 
exerts  pressure  much  as  water  does,  also  that  it 
expands  indefinitely  if  pressure  is  removed  from 
it.  One  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  people  were 
just  as  curious  about  the  atmosphere  and  its  prop- 


120  THE   TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

erties  as  we  are  now  about  radio-activity.  Public 
lectures  upon  the  subject  were  crowded.  It  took  a 
long  time  for  people  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  they 
were  living  in  the  midst  of  an  atmosphere  which  had 
weight,  occupied  space  to  the  exclusion  of  other 
matter,  and  in  general  behaved  very  much  like 
water.  Teachers  to-day  forget  that  their  pupils 
require  a  long  time  to  arrive  at  a  working  knowledge 
of  these  facts.  They  need  many  closely  related 
experiences  to  render  the  knowledge  real.  A  single 
experiment,  a  brief  statement,  is  not  enough.  To 
show  by  a  lecture  experiment  that  air  has  weight 
and  to  tell  the  pupils  that  a  cubic  foot  of  the  air 
that  surrounds  them  weighs  about  an  ounce  and  a 
quarter  is  well  worth  while,  but  the  real  truth  of 
the  matter  will  not  be  appreciated  until  the  subject 
has  been  attacked  many  times  and  on  many  sides. 
The  pupils  need  some  physics  readers  or  perhaps 
leaflets.  Let  me  attempt  to  write  here  a  sample 
chapter  in  the  hope  that  many  others  will  be  per- 
suaded to  take  up  this  sort  of  authorship  until  the 
material  for  teaching  physics  becomes  as  rich  as 
that  for  teaching  history  and  English  now  is. 

The  Air 

Looking  from  the  window  of  my  lecture  room  I 
see  powerful  elm  trees  rocking  in  the  wind.  Cer- 
tainly to  bend  them  so  far  would  require  the  power 
of  many  horses.  How  could  anything  by  pushing 
against  them  move  them  so  greatly  unless  it  had  a 
considerable  weight?  By  roughly  estimating  the 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    121 

number  of  cubic  feet  I  calculate  that  the  air  in  this 
lecture  room  weighs  two  tons ;  and  with  my  anemom- 
eter I  find  that  the  wind  is  blowing  forty  miles 
an  hour  at  present,  and  even  while  I  am  saying  this 
a  large  limb  has  just  been  torn  from  the  trunk  of 
one  of  the  trees.  What  might  one  expect  if,  say,  the 
two  tons  of  air  which  is  in  this  lecture  room  should 
move  at  the  rate  of  forty  miles  an  hour  and  strike 
against  anything  ?  If  I  roll  these  two  rubber  balls, 
which  look  alike  to  you,  upon  the  floor  and  each 
comes  in  contact  with  the  leg  of  a  chair,  you  will 
readily  infer  from  what  you  see  that  one  is  a  hollow 
ball  while  the  other  is  solid,  for  one  is  deflected  from 
its  course  without  moving  the  chair  while  the  other 
carries  the  chair  with  it  some  distance.  So  when 
you  see  a  freight  car  moving  down  the  track  to 
couple  with  another,  you  infer  whether  it  is  loaded 
or  empty  by  the  way  it  moves  and  by  the  power  of 
its  blow  when  it  comes  in  contact  with  the  other 
car.  That  is,  our  experience  has  taught  us  to  feel 
that  the  damage  which  a  moving  body  can  do  by 
collision  depends  very  much  upon  its  weight.  This 
is  why  one  might  be  willing  to  catch  a  light  ball 
thrown  at  him  when  he  would  avoid  a  heavy  one. 
But  catching  a  ball  suggests  another  consideration. 
One  is  willing  to  catch  a  ball  thrown  slowly  when 
he  would  avoid  one  thrown  swiftly,  and  we  in- 
stinctively conclude  something  about  the  velocity 
of  the  wind  by  the  work  it  will  do.  Hence  I  found 
its  velocity  by  means  of  this  little  windmill  with  a 
cyclometer  attached,  called  an  anemometer.  When 
we  speak  of  the  wind's  blowing  hard  we  are  apt  to 


122  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

think  only  of  its  velocity,  and  I  suppose  it  would 
be  natural  to  say  that  a  forty-mile  wind  was  blowing 
twice  as  hard  as  a  twenty-mile  wind.  The  fact  is, 
however,  that  a  forty-mile  wind  will  push  four 
times  as  hard  against  things  as  a  twenty-mile  wind 
does.  Some  definite  figures  will  add  to  the  interest 
of  this  study.  When  smoke  ascends  straight  we 
say  there  is  no  wind.  When  the  flags  are  just 
stretched  out  the  wind  is  blowing  ten  or  twelve 
miles  an  hour.  It  is  not  difficult  to  estimate  a 
twenty-mile  breeze  by  noting  the  movement  of  the 
smaller  branches  of  trees,  and  a  thirty-mile  wind  by 
noting  the  movement  of  the  larger  branches  of  the 
trees,  and  a  forty-mile  storm  wind  by  the  swaying 
of  the  whole  trunks  of  trees.  If  one  compares  his 
estimates  with  the  testimony  of  the  anemometer  for 
a  time  he  will  soon  become  quite  adept.  A  ten- 
mile  breeze  will  give  half  a  pound  per  square  foot 
of  wind  pressure  for  sailing.  A  twenty -mile  breeze 
will  furnish  2  pounds  per  square  foot.  A  thirty- 
mile  wind  will  give  4.5  pounds  and  a  forty-mile  gale 
will  furnish  8  pounds.  When  you  estimate  the 
number  of  square  feet  in  your  sail  and  think  of  the 
number  of  pieces  of  lead  ballast  you  are  carrying  it 
readily  appears  a  dangerous  wind  for  small  boats. 
When  the  College  was  first  built  we  had  six  window- 
panes  which  were  too  large  for  their  thickness  to 
withstand  the  wind  pressure  and  one  after  another 
they  smashed  in  until  finally  we  saved  the  last  of 
them  by  putting  a  sash  across  the  middle.  Our 
leaded  glass  windows  are  all  of  them  more  or  less 
concaved  by  the  wind  pressure.  The  wind  lifts 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE 

buildings  from  their  foundations,  uproots  trees, 
piles  up  great  snow  banks  and  great  sand  dunes, 
raises  mighty  waves  with  their  tons  of  water  because 
air  has  weight. 

I  should  like  to  have  you  go  with  me  and  see  a 
flywheel  in  our  engine  room.  The  rim  of  this  wheel 
is  moving  at  the  rate  of  sixty  miles  per  hour.  Its 
surface  is  so  smooth  that  you  can  let  it  rub  against 
your  hand  without  injury,  in  spite  of  its  high  velocity. 
Standing  near  it,  as  you  now  are,  you  feel  a  wind 
that  makes  you  hold  on  to  your  hat.  The  air  is 
very  still  in  all  the  rest  of  the  engine  room.  Now 
stand  one  side  while  I  pour  some  water  upon  this 
wheel,  and  you  note  that  the  wall  of  the  room  is 
now  getting  spattered  with  that  water.  One  reason 
why  the  surface  of  that  wheel  keeps  so  bright  and 
clean  is  that  the  wheel  itself  throws  off  from  its  sur- 
face every  bit  of  dirt  which  might  come  in  contact 
with  it.  It  is  in  like  manner  throwing  off  the  air  in 
constant  streams.  Does  not  this  make  one  realize 
that  air  is  a  fluid  like  water,  having  weight  —  al- 
though invisible?  There  must  also  be  friction  be- 
tween it  and  the  wheel.  I'll  pour  upon  this  wheel 
a  steady  stream  of  water  and  let  you  notice  it  leav- 
ing the  wheel  on  the  line  of  a  tangent.  The  so- 
called  "centrifugal  force"  causes  things  to  fly  away 
on  a  tangent  rather  than  on  a  line  leading  directly 
from  the  center.  If  you  try  to  use  a  sling  you  will 
need  to  know  this  fact.  Or  to  state  it  still  more  in 
accordance  with  our  natural  experience,  when  the 
water  gets  in  motion  it  tends  to  move  in  a  straight 
line  rather  than  around  a  curve.  This  flywheel 


124  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

suggests  our  ventilating  fans,  which  we  must  look 
at  while  they  are  standing  still.  One  of  these  wheels 
reminds  one  of  a  water  wheel.  One  might  imagine 
such  a  wheel  well  inclosed  and  revolving  rapidly 
backward,  throwing  water  from  a  lower  reservoir 
up  the  "waterfall"  back  into  the  mill-pond.  See 
Figure  1.  If  the  wheel  were  perfectly  smooth  at  its 
rim  some  considerable  amount  of  water  would  be 
thrown  up  the  flume  by  reason  of  the  friction.  But 
it  must  be  perfectly  evident  that  the  flanges  across 
the  rim  of  the  wheel  serve  still  better  to  keep  the 
stream  of  water  from  slipping  backward.  The 
result  is  that  the  stream  of  water  tends  to  keep 
more  nearly  the  velocity  of  the  wheel  —  just  as  a 
chain  belt  working  over  a  cog  wheel  does  less  slipping 
back  than  a  leather  belt. 


Fia.  1 

Figure  1  represents  fairly  the  construction  of 
the  first  one  of  our  ventilating  fans  which  we  come 
to  on  our  trip  about  the  building.  A  represents  the 
intake  of  outdoor  air,  and  B  the  ducts  which  dis- 
tribute the  air  to  the  rooms  of  the  building.  Of 
course  we  shall  return  to  this  often  when  studying 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    125 

the  heating,  the  filtering,  and  the  humidifying  of 
this  air.  The  other  ventilating  fans  about  the 
building  differ  from  each  other  in  minor  points,  but 
chiefly  they  differ  from  this  in  that  they  take  in  the 
air  at  C  instead  of  at  A.  The  inlet  ducts  bring  the 
air  to  the  center  of  the  wheels  along  the  line  of  their 
axles.  The  wheels  are  of  skeleton  construction 
and  the  air  is  thrown  out  at  B  as  before,  simply  be- 
cause it  has  weight  and  tends  to  fly  off  on  a  tangent. 
It  requires  eighty  horse-power  to  run  the  ventilating 
fans  which  push  the  air  through  the  Horace  Mann 
School  building.  This  means  that  air  has  weight 
and  offers  resistance  to  motion.  It  costs  about  $50 
a  day  just  to  push  the  air  along,  which  fact  seems 
appalling  when  looked  at  in  that  way,  but  that  is 
only  five  cents  a  day  for  each  pupil ;  and  when  we 
consider  that  14,406  persons  in  New  York  State  died 
of  consumption  in  the  year  1907  —  that  is,  they 
died  for  want  of  fresh  air  —  we  must  be  willing  to 
spend  five  cents  a  day  for  fresh  air  for  each  pupil 
in  school. 

Figure  1  also  explains  the  construction  of  a  "ro- 
tary" pump,  a  form  of  pump  very  much  in  use  now 
not  only  for  moving  water  but  air,  as  particularly 
in  the  case  of  vacuum  cleaners,  one  of  which  we  will 
examine  next.  The  hose  is  attached  at  A  for  "suc- 
tion" or  at  B  for  blowing. 

It  must  be  evident  that  the  stream  of  air  is  driven 
on  by  the  weight  of  the  air  behind  rather  than  by 
any  such  unthinkable  thing  as  a  pull  or  "suction." 
What  the  wheel,  or  pump,  does  is  to  push  the  air 
from  before  it  and  the  weight  of  the  atmosphere 


126  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

moves  the  air  in  from  behind  to  keep  the  space  full. 
We  are  at  the  bottom  of  an  ocean  of  air,  and  we 
may  best  appreciate  this  condition  by  imagining 
ourselves  at  the  bottom  of  an  ocean  of  water,  be- 
cause it  appeals  to  our  senses  more  directly.  If  we 
did  live  at  the  bottom  of  an  ocean  of  water  34  feet 
deep,  the  water  would  press  upon  us  with  the  same 
weight  that  our  atmosphere  now  presses.  By  means 
of  this  pressure  gauge  I  will  show  you  that  the  pres- 
sure of  our  atmosphere  is  15  pounds  per  square 
inch.  Of  course  the  air  is  pressing  upon  all  sides  of 
the  wheel  of  the  vacuum  cleaner  and  when  the 
wheel  moves  it  drives  a  stream  of  air  exactly  as  it 
would  water  if  submerged  in  that.  We  shall  return 
to  the  vacuum  cleaner  again  to  study  several  fea- 
tures about  it.  But  let  us  now  recall  an  experience 
you  may  have  had  while  riding  in  an  automobile  or 
an  open  trolley  car.  Let  us  suppose  a  quiet  day, 
when  the  smoke  rises  straight  upward  (not,  by  the 
way,  because  it  is  without  weight  but  because  the 
air  is  heavier  than  it  and  pushes  it  up).  Let  us 
imagine,  I  say,  a  quiet  day  when  there  is  no  wind, 
and  we  will  start  our  automobile  at  the  rate  of  ten 
miles  per  hour.  We  are  now  pushing  our  way 
through  this  quiet  air  and  we  feel  a  resistance  of 
half  a  pound  per  square  foot.  The  effect  is  the  same 
as  it  would  be  if  we  stood  still  in  a  ten-mile  breeze. 
A  small  flag  which  we  carry  stands  out  in  the  same 
manner  as  it  would  in  such  a  breeze.  Now  let  us 
increase  our  speed  to  twenty  miles  per  hour  and 
hold  our  flag  with  two  hands  across  our  line  of 
motion.  We  are  now  pushing  against  the  air  with 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    127 

a  force  of  two  pounds  per  square  foot.  At  forty 
miles  an  hour  we  push  eight  pounds  per  square  foot 
and  at  sixty  miles  per  hour  we  push  eighteen  pounds 
per  square  foot,  which  splits  our  flag.  If  we  could 
make  it  one  hundred  miles  per  hour  we  should  feel 
the  pressure  of  fifty  pounds  per  square  foot  exactly 
as  many  persons  have  experienced  it  in  a  hurricane. 
This  experience,  upon  reflection,  makes  one  feel  that 
air  has  weight  and  occupies  space  which  it  does  not 
yield  to  other  bodies  without  resistance. 

A  windmill  operates  because  air  has  weight  and 
pushes  against  it.  If  the  windmill  is  25  feet  in  di- 
ameter a  fifteen-mile  per  hour  breeze  develops  one 
horse-power.  The  propeller  wheel  of  an  aeroplane 
drives  the  plane  forward  because  in  its  motion  it 
pushes  against  the  air,  which  offers  the  necessary 
resistance,  even  as  water  offers  the  necessary  re- 
sistance to  the  propeller  of  a  steamboat.  The 
aeroplane  lifts  itself  and  its  machinery  and  its  pas- 
sengers because  its  planes  meet  with  the  necessary 
resistance  from  the  air  as  they  cut  it  at  an  angle. 
The  rising  of  a  balloon  must  be  looked  upon  as 
direct  evidence  that  air  has  weight.  The  dirigible 
balloons  which  went  up  near  the  College  a  few 
months  ago  each  contained  about  7500  cubic  feet 
of  hydrogen.  This  pushed  7500  cubic  feet  of  air 
out  of  its  place.  A  cubic  foot  of  air  weighs  1.28 
ounces,  and  it  is  about  fourteen  times  as  heavy  as 
hydrogen.  Hence  the  7500  cubic  feet  of  air  dis- 
placed weighs  about  544  pounds  more  than  the 
hydrogen  and  therefore  pushes  the  hydrogen  up 
with  that  much  force.  Hence  the  bag  of  the  balloon, 


128  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

the  car,  the  engine,  the  man,  and  his  baggage,  all 
together  equaled  in  weight  not  far  from  500  pounds. 
Think  how  the  fact  that  air  is  matter  is  illustrated 
by  the  inflated  football,  the  pneumatic  tires  of 
automobiles,  air  mattresses  and  cushions,  air  cushions 
in  door  checks,  air  brakes,  air  guns,  caissons,  diving 
bells,  machinery  of  all  sorts  moved  by  compressed 
air  acting  like  steam.  But  lastly  think  of  liquid  air, 
which  is  merely  ordinary  air  reduced  by  cold  and 
by  pressure  to  about  -g^v  part  of  its  normal  volume 
and  which  weighs  a  little  more  than  water. 

The  following  is  a  portion  of  a  lecture  by  James 
Ferguson,  F.R.S.,  on  the  "Spring  of  the  Air"  de- 
livered some  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  It 
is  presented  here  as  a  good  example  of  how  the 
subject  should  be  taught  to-day  —  namely,  by  pre- 
senting the  same  phenomenon  in  many  different 
ways. 

To  Show  the  Elasticity  or  Spring  of  the  Air 

14.  Tie  up  a  very  small  quantity  of  air  in  a  bladder,  and  put 
it  under  a  receiver ;  then  exhaust  the  air  out  of  the  receiver ;  and 
the  small  quantity  which  is  confined  in  the  bladder  (having  noth- 
ing to  act  against  it)  will  so  expand  itself  by  the  force  of  its 
spring,  as  to  fill  the  bladder  as  full  as  it  could  be  blown  of  com- 
mon air.     But  upon  letting  the  air  into  the  receiver  again,  it  will 
overpower  the  air  in  the  bladder,  and  press  its  sides  almost  close 
together. 

15.  If  the  bladder  so  tied  up  be  put  into  a  wooden  box,  and 
have  20  or  30  pound-weight  of  lead  upon  it  hi  the  box,  and  the 
box  be  covered  with  a  close  receiver ;  upon  exhausting  the  air  out 
of  the  receiver,  that  air  which  is  confined  in  the  bladder  will  so 
expand  itself  as  to  raise  up  all  the  lead  by  the  force  of  its  spring. 

16.  Take  the  glass  ball  mentioned  in  the  fifth  experiment, 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE     129 

which  was  left  full  of  water,  all  but  a  small  bubble  of  air  at  top, 
and  having  set  it  with  its  neck  downward  into  the  empty  phial 
a  a,  and  covered  it  with  a  close  receiver,  exhaust  the  air  out  of  the 
receiver,  and  the  small  bubble  of  air  in  the  top  of  the  ball  will 
expand  itself,  so  as  to  force  all  the  water  out  of  the  ball  into  the 
phial. 

17.  Screw  the  pipe  A  B  into  the  pump-plate,  place  the  tall  re- 
ceiver G  H  upon  the  plate  c  d,  as  in  the  twelfth  experiment,  and 
exhaust  the  air  out  of  the  receiver ;  then  turn  the  cock  e  to  keep 
out  the  air,  unscrew  the  pipe  from  the  pump,  and  screw  it  into 
the  mouth  of  the  copper  vessel  C  G  (Fig.  15),  the  vessel  having 
first  been  about  half  filled  with  water.     Then  open  the  cock  e 
(Fig.  11),  and  the  spring  of  the  air  which  is  confined  in  the 
copper  vessel  will  force  the  water  up  through  the  pipe  A  B  in  a 
jet  into  the  exhausted  receiver,  as  strongly  as  it  did  by  its  pres- 
sure on  the  surface  of  the  water  in  a  bason,  in  the  twelfth  ex- 
periment. 

18.  If  a  fowl,  a  cat,  rat,  mouse,  or  bird,  be  put  under  a  re- 
ceiver, and  the  air  be  exhausted,  the  animal  will  be  at  first  op- 
pressed as  with  a  great  weight,  then  grow  convulsed,  and  at  last 
expire  in  all  the  agonies  of  a  most  bitter  and  cruel  death.     But 
as  this  experiment  is  too  shocking  to  every  spectator  who  has  the 
least  degree  of  humanity,  we  substitute  a  machine  called  the 
lungs-glass  in  place  of  the  animal. 

19.  If  a  butterfly  be  suspended  in  a  receiver,  by  a  fine  thread 
tied  to  one  of  its  horns,  it  will  fly  about  in  the  receiver,  as  long 
as  the  receiver  continues  full  of  air ;  but  if  the  air  be  exhausted, 
though  the  animal  will  not  die,  and  will  continue  to  flutter  its 
wings,  it  cannot  remove  itself  from  the  place  where  it  hangs  in 
the  middle  of  the  receiver,  until  the  air  be  let  in  again,  and  then 
the  animal  will  fly  about  as  before. 

20.  Pour  some  quicksilver  into  the  small  bottle  A,  and  screw 
the  brass  collar  r  of  the  tube  B  G  into  the  brass  neck  b  of  the 
bottle,  and  the  lower  end  of  the  tube  will  be  immersed  into  the 
quicksilver,  so  that  the  air  above  the  quicksilver  in  the  bottle 
will  be  confined  there,  because  it  cannot  get  out  about  the  join- 
ings, nor  can  it  be  drawn  out  through  the  quicksilver  into  the 
tube.     This  tube  is  also  open  at  top,  and  is  to  be  covered  with 


130  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

the  receiver  G  and  large  tube  E  F,  which  tube  is  fixed  by  brass 
collars  to  the  receiver,  and  is  closed  at  the  top.  This  preparation 
being  made,  exhaust  the  air  both  out  of  the  receiver  and  its  tube ; 
and  the  air  will,  by  the  same  means,  be  exhausted  out  of  the  inner 
tube  B  C,  through  its  open  top  at  C ;  and  as  the  receiver  and 
tubes  are  exhausting,  the  air  that  is  confined  in  the  glass  bottle 
A  will  so  press  by  its  spring  upon  the  surface  of  the  quicksilver, 
as  to  force  it  up  in  the  inner  tube  as  high  as  it  was  raised  in  the 
ninth  experiment  by  the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere;  which 
demonstrates  that  the  spring  of  the  air  is  equivalent  to  its  weight. 

21.  Screw  the  end  C  of  the  pipe  CD  into  the  hole  of  the 
pump-plate,  and  turn  all  the  three  cocks  d,  G,  and  H,  so  as  to 
open  the  communications  between  all  the  three  pipes  E,  F,  D  C, 
and  the  hollow  trunk  A  D.     Then,  cover  the  plates  g  and  h  with 
wet  leathers,  which  have  holes  in  their  middle  where  the  pipes 
open  into  the  plates  ;  and  place  the  close  receiver  I  upon  the  plate 
g ;  this  done,  shut  the  pipe  F  by  turning  the  cock  H,  and  exhaust 
the  air  out  of  the  receiver  I.     Then,  turn  the  cock  d  to  shut  out 
the  air,  unscrew  the  machine  from  the  pump,  and  having  screwed 
it  to  the  wooden  foot  L  put  the  receiver  K  upon  the  plate  h\ 
this  receiver  will  continue  loose  on  the  plate  as  long  as  it  keeps 
full  of  air ;  which  it  will  do  until  the  cock  H  be  turned  to  open 
the  communication  between  the  pipes  F  and  E,  through  the  trunk 
A  B ;  and  then  the  air  in  the  receiver  K,  having  nothing  to  act 
against  its  spring,  will  run  from  K  into  I,  until  it  be  so  divided 
between  these  receivers,  as  to  be  of  equal  density  in  both ;  and 
then  they  will  be  held  down  with  equal  forces  to  their  plates  by 
the  pressure  of  the  atmosphere ;  though  each  receiver  will  then 
be  kept  down  but  with  one-half  of  the  pressure  upon  it,  that  the 
receiver  I  had,  when  it  was  exhausted  of  air ;  because  it  has  now 
one-half  of  the  common  air  in  it  which  filled  the  receiver  K  when 
it  was  set  upon  the  plate ;  and  therefore  a  force  equal  to  half  the 
force  of  the  spring  of  common  air,  will  act  within  the  receivers 
against  the  whole  pressure  of  the  common  air  upon  their  out- 
sides.     This  is  called  transferring  the  air  out  of  one  vessel  into 
another. 

22.  Put  a  cork  in  the  square  phial  A  and  fix  it  in  with  wax 
or  cement ;  put  the  phial  upon  the  pump-plate  with  the  wire  cage 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    131 

B  over  it,  and  cover  the  cage  with  a  close  receiver.  Then,  ex- 
haust the  air  out  of  the  receiver,  and  the  air  that  is  corked  up 
in  the  phial  will  break  the  phial  by  the  force  of  its  spring,  be- 
cause there  is  no  air  left  on  the  outside  of  the  phial  to  act  against 
the  air  within  it. 

23.  Put  a  shrivelled  apple  under  a  close  receiver,  and  exhaust 
the  air ;  then  the  spring  of  the  air  within  the  apple  will  plump 
it  out  so  as  to  cause  all  the  wrinkles  to  disappear;  but  upon 
letting   the    air    into  the  receiver  again,    to   press    upon  the 
apple,    it    will  instantly   return    to   its    former   decayed    and 
shrivelled  state. 

24.  Take  a  fresh  egg,  and  cut  off  a  little  of  the  shell  and  film 
from  its  smallest  end,  then  put  the  egg  under  a  receiver,  and 
pump  out  the  air ;  upon  this,  all  the  contents  in  the  egg  will  be 
forced  out  into  the  receiver,  by  the  expansion  of  a  small  bubble 
of  air  contained  in  the  greater  end,  between  the  shell  and  film. 

25.  Put  some  warm  beer  into  a  glass,  and  having  set  it  on 
the  pump,  cover  it  with  a  close  receiver,  and  then  exhaust  the 
air.     While  this  is  doing,  and  thereby  the  pressure  more  and 
more  taken  off  from  the  beer  in  the  glass,  the  air  therein  will 
expand  itself,  rising  up  in  innumerable  bubbles  to  the  surface 
of  the  beer;  and  from  thence  it  will  be  taken  away  with  the 
other  air  in  the  receiver.     When  the  receiver  is  nearly  exhausted, 
the  air  in  the  beer,  which  could  not  disentangle  itself  quick 
enough  to  get  off  with  the  rest,  will  now  expand  itself  so  as  to 
cause  the  beer  to  have  all  the  appearance  of  boiling;  and  the 
greatest  part  of  it  will  go  over  the  glass. 

Put  some  warm  water  into  a  glass,  and  put  a  bit  of  dry  wainscot 
or  other  wood  into  the  water.  Then,  cover  the  glass  with  a 
close  receiver,  and  exhaust  the  air ;  upon  this,  the  air  in  the  wood 
having  liberty  to  expand  itself,  will  come  out  plentifully,  and 
make  all  the  water  to  bubble  about  the  wood,  especially  about 
the  ends,  because  the  pores  lie  lengthwise.  A  cubic  inch  of  dry 
wainscot  has  so  much  air  in  it,  that  it  will  continue  bubbling 
for  near  half  an  hour  together. 

Compare  this  rich  treatment  of  an  interesting  and 
important  subject  with  the  present  practice  of  con- 


132  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

fining  the  instruction  upon  it  to  a  single  laboratory 
exercise  to  prove  that  PXV  is  a  constant,  leaving  the 
pupil  without  any  idea  that  Boyle's  law  is  a  matter 
of  daily  experience.  Verily  W.  S.  Franklin  is  quite 
right  when  he  says  : 

"My  experience  is,  most  emphatically,  that  a  student  may 
measure  a  thing  and  know  nothing  at  all  about  it  and  I  believe 
that  the  present  high-school  courses  in  elementary  physics  in 
which  quantitative  laboratory  work  is  so  strongly  emphasized 
are  altogether  bad.  ...  I  believe  that  physical  sciences  should 
be  taught  in  the  secondary  schools  with  reference  primarily  to 
their  practical  applications.  ...  I  cannot  endure  a  so-called 
knowledge  of  elementary  science  which  does  not  relate  to  some 
actual  physical  condition  or  thing  .  .  .  either  you  must  create 
an  actual  world  of  the  unusual  phenomena  of  nature  by  purchas- 
ing an  elaborate  and  expensive  equipment  of  scientific  apparatus 
or,  you  must  make  use  of  the  boy's  everyday  world  of  actual 
conditions  and  things." 

Physics,  as  it  is  taught  to-day,  furnishes  abundant 
material  for  an  answer  to  Dr.  Butler's  question, 
"Is  the  present-day  student  brought  understand- 
ingly  and  with  ample  introductory  explanation  into 
a  new  subject,  or  is  he  hurled  into  it  and  left  to 
flounder  helplessly  until,  not  comprehending,  he 
turns  from  it  in  disgust?"  (Educational  Review, 
Vol.  38,  p.  519.) 

Since  Ferguson's  time  the  world  has  made  mighty 
advances  in  utilizing  the  "Spring  of  the  Air,"  but 
in  the  matter  of  instructing  the  youth  on  that  point 
we  have  gone  backward.  Why  do  we  not  show  them 
the  "pressure  tank"  connected  with  the  hydraulic 
elevator  which  is  perhaps  in  the  school  building? 
The  last  time  we  looked  at  ours,  the  pressure  gauge 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE     133 

stood  at  90  pounds  and  the  water  gauge  enabled  us 
to  estimate  that  the  volume  of  the  air  had  been  re- 
duced to  about  one-sixth  of  its  normal  volume. 
While  we  watched  it  the  pressure  rose  and  fell  and 
the  volume  changed  inversely  —  exact  measure- 
ments upon  this  law  are  out  of  place  in  high  school. 
So  are  all  gas  measurements  with  corrections  for 
pressure  and  temperature  changes.  To  show  the 
relationship  in  round  numbers  is  quite  sufficient. 
A  high-school  pupil  ought  indeed  to  be  taught  the 
folly  of  one's  saying  that  his  bicycle  tire  burst  be- 
cause it  was  set  in  the  sun.  He  ought  to  know  that 
it  would  require  a  rise  in  temperature  of  nearly  500 
degrees  F.  to  double  its  volume  if  the  pressure 
remained  constant.  He  ought  to  know  that  a  bal- 
loon did  not  "fall  into  the  river  because  the  chilly 
air  of  the  river  contracted  its  gas";  but  to  verify, 
with  the  usual  ado,  the  accuracy  of  the  laws  of  Boyle 
and  Charles  is  out  of  place  in  the  high  school,  not 
because  the  exercise  is  too  difficult  but  because  it 
crowds  out  things  of  much  more  importance.  The 
high-school  pupil  should  know  that  gas  is  measured 
for  commercial  purposes  without  reference  to  these 
corrections,  and  he  ought  to  be  able  to  estimate  how 
insignificant  the  corrections  would  be  in  his  gas 
bills,  if  they  were  made. 

A  similar  illustration  of  how  principles  of  physics 
may  be  well  taught  by  calling  attention  to  a  large 
number  of  familiar  experiences  is  to  be  found  in  Dr. 
Neil  Arnott's  book  on  Natural  Philosophy  written 
eighty  years  ago  as  follows : 


134  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

Action  and  Reaction 

If  a  man  in  one  boat  pull  at  the  rope  attached  to  another,  the 
two  boats  will  approach.  If  they  be  of  equal  size  and  load,  they 
will  both  move  at  the  same  rate,  in  whichever  of  the  boats  the 
man  may  be ;  and  if  there  be  a  difference  in  the  sizes,  and  resist- 
ances, there  will  be  a  corresponding  difference  in  the  velocities, 
the  smaller  boat  moving  the  fastest. 

A  magnet  and  a  piece  of  iron  attract  each  other  equally,  what- 
ever disproportion  there  is  between  the  masses.  If  either  be 
balanced  in  a  scale,  and  the  other  be  then  brought  within  a  cer- 
tain distance  beneath  it,  the  very  same  counterpoise  will  be  re- 
quired to  prevent  their  approach,  whichever  be  in  the  scale.  If 
the  two  were  hanging  near  each  other  as  pendulums,  they  would 
approach  and  meet ;  but  the  little  one  would  perform  a  greater 
part  of  the  journey,  in  proportion  to  its  littleness. 

A  man  in  a  boat  pulling  a  rope  attached  to  a  large  ship, 
seems  only  to  move  the  boat;  but  he  really  moves  the  ship 
a  little,  for  a  thousand  men  in  a  thousand  boats,  pulling 
simultaneously  in  the  same  way,  would  make  the  ship  meet 
them  halfway. 

A  pound  of  lead  and  the  earth  attract  each  other  with  equal 
force ;  but  that  force  makes  the  lead  approach  sixteen  feet  in  a 
second  towards  the  earth,  while  the  contrary  motion  of  the  earth 
is  of  course  as  much  less  than  this  as  the  earth  is  weightier  than 
one  pound,  and  is  therefore  unnoticed.  Strictly,  however,  it  is 
true,  that  even  a  feather  falling  lifts  the  earth  towards  it,  and 
that  a  man  jumping  kicks  the  earth  away. 

A  spring,  unbending  between  two  equal  bodies,  throws  them 
off  with  equal  velocity;  if  between  bodies  of  different  magni- 
tudes, the  velocity  is  greater  in  the  smaller  body,  and  in  exact 
proportion  to  the  smallness. 

On  firing  a  cannon,  the  gun  recoils  with  as  much  motion  or 
momentum  in  it  as  the  ball  has ;  but  the  momentum  in  the  gun 
being  diffused  through  a  greater  mass,  the  velocity  is  small,  and 
easily  checked. 

The  recoil  of  a  light  fowling-piece  will  hurt  the  shoulder,  if 
the  piece  be  not  held  close  to  it. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    135 

A  ship  in  chase,  by  firing  her  bow  guns,  retards  her  motion ; 
by  firing  from  the  stern  she  quickens  it. 

A  ship  firing  a  broadside,  heels  or  inclines  to  the  other  .side. 

A  vessel  of  water  suspended  by  a  cord  hangs  perpendicularly ; 
but  if  a  hole  be  opened  on  one  side,  so  as  to  allow  the  water  to 
jet  out  there,  the  vessel  will  be  pushed  to  the  other  side  by  the 
reaction  of  the  jet,  and  will  so  remain  while  it  flows.  If  the  hole 
be  oblique,  the  vessel  will  turn  round  constantly. 

A  vessel  of  water  placed  upon  a  floating  piece  of  plank,  and 
allowed  to  throw  out  a  jet,  as  in  the  last  case,  moves  the  plank 
in  the  opposite  direction. 

A  steam-boat  may  be  driven  by  making  the  engine  pump  or 
squirt  water  from  the  stern,  instead  of,  as  usual,  moving  paddle 
wheels.  There  is  a  loss  of  power,  however,  in  this  mode  of  ap- 
plying it,  as  will  be  explained  under  the  head  of  "Hydraulics." 

A  man  floating  in  a  small  boat,  and  blowing  strongly  with  a 
bellows  toward  the  stern,  pushes  himself  onwards  with  the  same 
force  with  which  the  air  issues  from  the  bellows  pipe. 

A  sky-rocket  ascends,  because,  after  it  is  lighted,  the  lower 
part  is  always  producing  a  large  quantity  of  aeriform  fluid,  which, 
in  expanding,  presses  not  only  on  the  air  below,  but  also  on  the 
rocket  above,  and  thus  lifts  it.  The  ascent  is  aided  also  by  the 
recoil  of  the  rocket  from  the  part  of  its  substance,  which  is  con- 
stantly being  shot  downwards. 

He  was  a  foolish  man  who  thought  he  had  found  the  means 
of  commanding  always  a  fair  wind  for  his  pleasure-boat,  by  erect- 
ing an  immense  bellows  in  the  stern.  The  bellows  and  sails  acted 
against  each  other,  and 'there  was  no  motion ;  indeed,  in  a  perfect 
calm,  there  would  be  a  little  backward  motion,  because  the  sail 
would  not  catch  all  the  wind  from  the  bellows. 

A  man  using  an  oar,  or  a  steam-engine  turning  paddle  wheels, 
advances  exactly  with  the  force  that  drives  the  water  astern. 

A  swimmer  pressing  the  water  downwards  and  backwards  with 
his  hands,  is  sent  forwards  and  upwards  with  the  same  force  by 
the  re-action  of  the  water. 

And  a  bird  flying  is  upheld  with  exactly  the  force  with  which 
it  strikes  the  air  in  the  opposite  direction. 

A  man  pushing  against  the  ground  with  a  stick,  may  be  con- 


136  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

sidered  as  compressing  a  spring  between  the  earth  and  the  end  of 
his  stick,  which  spring  is  therefore  pushing  up  as  much  as  he 
pushes  down ;  and  if,  at  the  time,  he  were  balanced  in  the  scale 
of  a  weighing  beam,  he  would  find  that  he  weighed  just  as  much 
less  as  if  he  were  pressing  with  his  stick. 

Thus  an  invalid,  on  a  spring  plank  or  chair,  who  causes  his 
body  to  rise  and  fall  through  a  great  range,  by  a  trifling  down- 
ward pressure  of  his  hand  on  a  staff  or  on  a  table,  and  thus 
obtains  the  advantage  of  almost  passive  exercise,  is  really  lifting 
himself  while  he  presses  downward. 

When  a  child  cries,  on  knocking  his  head  against  a  table  or  a 
pane  of  glass,  it  is  common  to  tell  him,  and  it  is  true,  that  he  has 
given  as  hard  blows  as  he  has  received ;  although  his  philosophy, 
attending  chiefly  to  results,  probably  blames  the  table  for  his 
head  hurt,  and  his  head  for  the  glass  broken. 

The  difference  of  momentum  acquired  in  a  fall  of  one  foot  or 
of  several,  is  well  known;  the  corresponding  intensities  of  re- 
action are  unpleasantly  experienced  by  a  man  who,  in  sitting 
down,  is  quietly  received  into  a  chair,  or  who  unexpectedly 
reaches  the  floor  where  he  supposed  a  chair  to  be. 

What  motion  the  wind  has  given  to  a  ship,  it  has  itself  lost, 
that  is  to  say,  the  ship  has  re-acted  on  the  moving  air ;  as  is  seen 
when  one  vessel  is  becalmed  under  the  lee  of  another. 

When  a  billiard  ball  strikes  directly  another  ball  of  equal  size, 
it  stops,  and  the  second  ball  proceeds  with  the  whole  velocity 
which  the  first  had  —  the  action  which  imparts  the  new  motion 
here  being  equal  to  the  re-action  which  destroys  the  old.  Al- 
though the  transference  of  motion,  in  such  a  case,  seems  to  be 
instantaneous,  the  change  is  really  progressive,  and  is  as  fol- 
lows: The  approaching  ball,  at  a  certain  point  of  time,  has 
just  given  half  of  its  motion  to  the  other  equal  ball,  and  if  both 
were  of  soft  clay,  they  would  then  proceed  together  with  half 
the  original  velocity ;  but,  as  they  are  elastic,  the  touching  parts 
at  the  moment  supposed,  are  compressed  like  a  spring  between 
the  balls,  and  by  then  expanding,  and  exerting  force  equally 
both  ways,  they  double  the  velocity  of  the  foremost  ball,  and 
destroy  altogether  the  motion  in  the  other. 

If  a  billiard  ball  be  propelled  against  the  nearest  one  of  a  row 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    137 

of  balls  equal  to  itself,  it  comes  to  rest  as  in  the  last  case  de- 
scribed, while  the  farthest  ball  of  the  row  darts  off  with  its 
velocity,  the  intermediate  balls  having  each  received  and  trans- 
mitted the  motion  in  a  twinkling,  without  appearing  themselves 
to  move. 

This  method  of  treatment  maybe  illustrated  further 
by  the  following  "  projects,"  one  on  Controlling  Fires 
and  the  other  on  Eggs. 

Controlling  Fires 

During  all  the  life  of  man  upon  the  earth,  down 
to  even  the  last  century,  fires  have  been  little  under- 
stood. They  have  inspired  awe  and  terror  and  have 
been  objects  of  superstitious  veneration. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  men  know  facts  a  long 
time  before  they  acquire  the  habit  of  acting  accord- 
ing to  that  knowledge.  Do  all  people  know  that 
air  makes  the  fire  burn?  How  shall  we  interpret 
the  following  incident,  which  is  typical  of  hun- 
dreds of  others  occurring  daily? 

"While  preparing  her  husband's  dinner  on  a  gas-range  in  the 

kitchen  of  their  home,  Mrs. placed  the  sleeve  of  her  dress 

too  near  the  gas  flame  and  was  soon  a  mass  of  flames.  As 
her  husband  reached  the  kitchen  door  he  saw  his  wife  run  out  into 
the  hall  screaming  wildly.  She  ran  down  the  stairway,  shedding 
flaming  fragments  of  her  dress  as  she  went.  The  husband  did 
not  overtake  her  until  she  had  reached  the  hallway  of  the  first 
floor,  and  was  trying  to  open  the  door  to  go  into  the  street.  He 
rolled  her  on  the  floor,  and  stripped  the  remnants  of  the  burn- 
ing dress  from  her  body.  In  the  meantime  the  pieces  of  burn- 
ing cloth  had  ignited  the  stair  carpet  between  the  second  and 
third  floors,  and  the  hall  began  to  fill  with  smoke.  The  other 
tenants  were  aroused,  and  while  one  went  to  summon  an  am- 


138  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

bulance  another  turned  in  an  alarm  of  fire.    At  the  hospital 
Mrs. is  said  to  be  in  a  serious  condition." 

A  most  common  headline  in  the  daily  news  is 
Burned  in  the  Sight  of  Many.  Two  recent  accounts 
tell  of  women  stepping  upon  matches  upon  the  side- 
walk, and  while  their  clothes  were  in  flame,  not  one 
of  the  onlookers  knew  what  to  do  except  to  call  a 
fire-engine  or  a  policeman. 

Little  children  whose  clothes  have  caught  fire 
are  seized  in  the  arms  of  distracted  mothers  who 
run  about  with  them  doing  nothing  but  fanning  the 
flames. 

We  continue  to  build  costly  structures  of  kindling 
wood  on  which  as  a  matter  of  course  we  pay  exces- 
sive rates  of  insurance,  oblivious  of  the  fact  that  a 
considerable  number  of  these  buildings  become 
annually  the  funeral  pyres  of  multitudes.  Our  an- 
nual loss  by  fire  in  the  United  States,  including  cost 
of  fire  departments  and  cost  of  insurance,  exceeds 
two  hundred  million  dollars,  and  is  equal  to  that  of 
all  other  countries  combined. 

The  art  of  controlling  fires  requires  that  one  should 
know  how  to  build  them,  to  regulate  them,  and  to 
extinguish  them  at  will.  A  fireman  in  a  large 
building  may  save  or  waste  many  times  his  wages 
according  as  he  understands  the  control  of  fires. 
It  is  a  case  where  beyond  all  doubt  the  most  ex- 
pensive men  are  the  cheapest. 

The  management  of  gas  and  gasoline  engines  re- 
quires first  of  all  a  knowledge  of  combustion.  If 
each  person  had  a  practical  knowledge  of  combus- 
tion, such  as  any  person  beyond  the  primary-school 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    139 

age  may  acquire,  nine-tenths  of  the  destructive  fires 
would  not  occur,  and  half  the  fuel,  now  wasted  by 
the  ignorant  stoking  of  stoves  and  furnaces,  would 
be  saved. 

A  course  in  chemistry  may  teach  one  to  say  "oxy- 
gen is  a  supporter  of  combustion"  without  adding 
anything  to  his  stock  of  useful  knowledge  about 
combustion.  He  may  increase  his  erudition  by 
"0  =  16"  and  "Sp.  gr.  =  1.1056"  etc.,  without  being 
any  wiser  to  act  in  case  of  the  house  being  on  fire. 
Suppose  we  invert  a  bottle  over  a  burning  candle. 
The  flame  burns  for  a  short  time  and  then  goes  out. 
Lift  the  bottle,  light  the  candle,  and  replace  the 
bottle.  The  flame  is  immediately  extinguished. 
Before  the  experiment  the  bottle  contained  air, 
which  consists  of  nitrogen,  etc.,  80  per  cent,  and 
oxygen  20  per  cent. ;  after  the  experiment  it  con- 
tained nitrogen,  etc.,  80  per  cent,  oxygen  15  per 
cent  and  carbon  dioxide  5  per  cent.  The  presence 
of  the  latter  gas  is  shown  by  pouring  a  little  lime- 
water  into  the  bottle.  Note  that  it  turns  the  lime- 
water  milk  white.  Air  in  which  one-quarter  of  the 
oxygen  has  been  replaced  by  carbon  dioxide  will  ex- 
tinguish a  flame.  It  will  also  extinguish  life.  Hence 
a  lantern  is  lowered  into  old  wells  to  determine 
whether  it  would  be  safe  for  a  man  to  descend  into 
them.  The  air  which  comes  from  one's  lungs  is 
very  nearly  like  that  in  the  bottle  after  the  above 
experiment.  A  bottleful  of  air  from  the  lungs  will 
extinguish  a  candle  flame. 

From  the  beginning  of  history  to  the  time  of  the 
Swedish  chemist  Stahl,  in  the  latter  part  of  the 


140  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

seventeenth  century,  fire  was  considered  an  element. 
For  about  one  hundred  years  previous  to  the  re- 
searches of  the  French  chemist  Lavoisier,  in  1878, 
it  was  believed  that  fuels  were  composed  of  ashes 
and  a  ghostly  thing  called  phlogiston.  Combustion 
according  to  this  theory  was  the  art  of  decomposing 
the  fuels  and  setting  free  the  phlogiston.  We  now 
know  that  fuels  in  burning  unite  with  the  oxygen 
of  the  air,  forming  new  compounds.  For  example, 
when  we  burn  in  an  ordinary  furnace  15  tons  of 
coal  the  furnace  also  consumes  about  32  tons  of 
oxygen  from  the  air,  and  pours  out  into  the  air 
about  44  tons  of  carbon  dioxide  gas,  leaving  behind 
about  3  tons  of  ashes.  These  figures,  although  not 
exact,  are  intended  to  convey  two  ideas :  (1)  that 
combustion  is  a  union  of  oxygen  with  fuels,  and  (2) 
that  the  process  neither  destroys  nor  creates  matter, 
but  merely  changes  combinations  of  matter.  The 
oxygen  is  quite  as  much  fuel  as  the  coal  is.  It  is 
very  fortunate  that  the  steamer  has  to  carry  only 
about  one-third  of  the  fuel  it  must  burn,  and  for- 
tunate that  by  far  the  largest  part  of  the  products 
of  combustion  dispose  of  themselves.  Merely  to 
shovel  the  coal  into  the  furnace  and  the  ashes  out  is 
a  sufficiently  large  task. 

In  the  case  of  the  candle,  and  also  in  the  case  of 
the  coal,  water  vapor  is  produced  as  a  product  of 
combustion  along  with  the  carbon  dioxide.  It  may 
be  noticed  that  when  the  bottle  is  first  inverted  over 
the  candle  a  slight  cloud  of  moisture  forms  upon 
the  cool  glass. 

Breathe  into  a  wide-mouthed  bottle  and  notice 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE     141 

first  how  the  moisture  gathers  upon  the  sides  of 
the  glass.  Afterwards  add  lime  water  to  show  the 
presence  of  the  carbon  dioxide  produced. 

Our  foods  correspond  to  fuels  and  we  take  in  also 
oxygen  as  a  food  or  a  fuel.  By  a  process  analogous 
to  combustion  we  cause  oxygen  to  unite  with  these 
foods,  producing  water  vapor,  carbon  dioxide,  and 
heat  for  our  bodies. 

When  a  bottle  of  oxygen  is  placed  over  a  burning 
candle,  the  candle  of  course  burns  brighter  and  longer 
but  goes  out  before  all  the  oxygen  is  exhausted.  The 
contents  of  the  bottle  now  acts  as  a  fire  extinguisher 
although  it  contains  as  much  oxygen  as  ever.  Part 
of  the  oxygen  is  now  bound  in  chemical  union 
with  carbon  from  the  candle,  and  the  oxygen  which 
is  free  does  not  constitute  a  sufficiently  large  portion 
of  the  whole  to  support  combustion.  The  presence 
of  carbon  dioxide  and  water  vapor  may  be  shown  as 
before. 

As  might  be  expected,  many  things  burn  vigorously 
in  pure  oxygen  which  burn  but  slowly  or  not  at  all 
in  the  air,  since  the  air  is  greatly  diluted  oxygen. 
A  thin  strip  of  iron  may  be  burned  with  great  vigor 
in  oxygen.  The  reddish-brown  powder  which  will 
be  found  covering  the  sides  of  the  bottle  after  the 
close  of  this  experiment  is  iron  rust.  It  weighs  con- 
siderably more  than  the  iron  which  was  burned  and 
the  increase  of  weight  represents  the  oxygen  which 
was  burned.  Combustion  and  rusting  differ  only 
in  the  rapidity  of  the  action.  Combustion  is  rapid 
rusting,  and  rusting  is  slow  combustion.  Both  are 
called  oxidation  and  the  products  are  called  oxides. 


142  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

The  oxidation  of  our  foods  in  our  bodies  is  slow  — 
more  like  rusting  than  combustion. 

We  cover  iron  with  various  things  to  prevent  the 
oxygen  of  the  air  from  rusting  it.  It  is  covered  with 
tin  in  the  tinware  of  the  kitchen,  with  zinc  in  the 
case  of  "galvanized"  iron,  with  nickel,  with  porce- 
lain, with  paint,  with  grease,  with  vaseline,  etc. 

Drop  a  match  into  a  flask  and  warm  the  flask 
gently ;  the  combustion  of  the  match  begins  at  its 
phosphorus  end  at  a  very  low  temperature.  After 
the  flame  has  gone  out  put  the  charred  portion  of 
the  match  into  another  flask  and  heat.  It  will  be 
found  to  have  a  very  much  higher  kindling  tem- 
perature than  before,  but  nevertheless  it  has  a  kin- 
dling temperature.  Before  matches  were  invented 
about  one  hundred  years  ago,  people  were  greatly 
troubled  to  start  a  fire.  It  was  so  difficult  to  raise 
fuels  to  the  kindling  temperature  that  generally 
they  preferred  to  keep  a  "seed  of  fire"  over  from 
one  time  to  another,  and  would  usually  borrow  fire 
from  their  neighbors  rather  than  go  to  the  trouble 
of  starting  a  new  one,  which  must  be  done  by  strik- 
ing sparks  with  a  flint  and  file  and  igniting  tinder. 

Explosive  mixtures.  Fill  a  32-ounce  narrow- 
mouthed  bottle  with  a  mixture  of  one  part  illumi- 
nating gas  to  five  parts  of  air.  Explode.  Try  other 
proportions  and  see  how  narrow  is  the  limit  for 
explosion.  Note  that  in  the  case  of  an  explosion 
the  flame  shoots  through  the  whole  mass  instantly, 
each  small  portion  of  gas  having  next  to  it  the 
oxygen  necessary  for  combustion,  and  the  burning 
of  any  part  heats  the  neighboring  parts  to  their 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    143 

kindling  temperature.  The  kindling  temperature  of 
the  mixture  is  about  as  hot  as  red-hot  iron.  Our 
experience  teaches  us  that  gas  may  leak  into  the 
air  until  the  odor  is  very  strong  without  its  being 
possible  to  explode  it  with  a  flame.  The  fact  is  that 
if,  in  a  mixture  of  gas  and  air,  the  gas  constitutes 
much  less  than  one-seventh  or  more  than  one-fifth 
of  the  mixture  an  explosion  cannot  take  place. 
When  the  best  proportions  are  reached  the  color  of 
the  flame  during  explosion  is  blue  like  that  of  a  gas 
stove  or  a  Bunsen  burner. 

In  a  32-ounce  narrow-mouthed  bottle  put  four 
drops  of  gasoline;  cork  and  let  it  mix  with  the  air 
in  the  bottle  and  finally  explode  it.  It  will  be 
found  that  a  drop  or  two  more  or  less  will  prevent 
the  explosion.  If  less,  nothing  will  happen ;  if  more, 
the  contents  of  the  bottle  will  quietly  burn  at  the 
mouth. 

It  is  a  marvel  that  a  small  two-horse-power  marine 
engine  may  explode  1000  times  a  minute,  when  it  is 
considered  that  for  each  explosion  4  drops  of  gasoline 
must  be  vaporized,  the  vapor  must  be  thoroughly 
mixed  with  about  one  quart  of  air,  the  products  of 
the  previous  explosion  must  be  swept  out  of  the 
cylinder,  the  fresh  mixture  must  be  taken  in  and 
compressed  to  about  one-fifth  of  its  original  volume, 
and  at  the  right  instant  an  electric  spark  must  be 
produced  to  raise  a  portion  of  the  mixture  to  its 
kindling  temperature.  When  one  considers  that 
all  of  this  must  be  repeated  one  thousand  times  a 
minute,  it  is  not  strange  that  those  who  first  pro- 
posed such  a  machine  were  considered  erratic. 


144  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

Try  four  drops  of  kerosene  in  place  of  the  gaso- 
line. It  will  not  explode,  simply  because  kerosene 
is  not  volatile  at  ordinary  temperature  and,  in 
spite  of  all  we  hear  to  the  contrary,  kerosene  lamps 
do  not  explode.  Now  place  the  bottle  containing 
four  drops  of  kerosene  and  air  in  a  kettle  of  hot 
water  heated  to  at  least  150  degrees  F.,  and  at  that 
temperature  the  kerosene  will  be  found  to  be  vola- 
tile like  gasoline.  After  a  few  minutes  it  may  be 
exploded.  Gas  stoves,  Bunsen  burners,  and  Wels- 
bach  lamps  are  all  devices  for  getting  as  near  to  the 
explosive  mixture  as  possible  without  quite  reaching 
it.  When  the  mixture  comes  within  the  narrow 
limits  of  from  14  per  cent  to  20  per  cent  gas,  the 
flame  "strikes  back."  If  the  proportion  of  gas  is 
much  above  20  per  cent  the  flame  becomes  yellow 
and  is  not  so  hot.  A  larger  supply  of  air  is  needed 
to  give  more  perfect  combustion  and  therefore  more 
heat  and  no  formation  of  smoke  or  other  partially 
burned  products. 

The  purpose  of  all  draughts  and  dampers  about 
stoves  and  furnaces  is  to  regulate  the  supply  of  air 
and  therefore  the  rate  of  combustion. 

Teachers  College  is  now  (1910)  burning  6500  tons 
of  coal  a  year.  The  engines  and  radiators  call  for 
a  certain  number  of  heat  units  per  year.  A  little 
bad  management  of  the  fires  might  result  in  sending 
the  products  of  combustion  up  the  chimney  half 
burned  and  require  double  the  consumption  of  coal 
to  produce  the  same  result.  The  coal  bill  would  then 
of  course  be  increased  about  $15,000,  and  this  is  not 
the  whole  story,  but  enough  for  our  present  purpose. 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    145 

In  fighting  a  fire  at  its  start,  the  one  thing  to  do 
is  to  make  it  smother  itself  as  the  candle  did  in  the 
bottle  in  our  first  experiment.  An  ordinary  living 
room  does  not  contain  oxygen  enough  to  burn  up 
five  pounds  of  wood.  If  the  doors  and  windows  are 
closed  perfectly  tight,  a  fire  burning  in  a  pile  of  dry 
kindlings  in  such  a  room  will  smolder  for  a  time  and 
go  out  precisely  as  the  candle  did  in  the  bottle  of 
the  first  experiment. 

Some  years  ago  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  hold  in 
check  for  two  hours  a  fire  which  had  started  upon  a 
pile  of  kindlings  in  the  basement  of  a  school  build- 
ing full  of  pupils.  The  fire  had  a  good  start  before 
it  was  discovered  and  the  pile  of  kindlings  was  large. 
When  the  windows  and  doors  were  closed  it  smol- 
dered down,  almost  checked  by  its  own  smoke,  but 
enough  air  leaked  into  the  room  to  keep  a  seed  of 
fire,  which  started  up  into  a  lively  blaze  whenever 
the  door  was  opened.  There  was  no  water  except 
such  as  might  be  brought  in  pails.  Having  mar- 
shaled out  the  pupils,  we  gathered  a  good  many 
pails  of  water  in  the  room  above  and  prepared  to 
cut  a  hole  through  the  floor  with  an  ax,  knowing 
that  the  moment  the  hole  was  cut  our  water  must 
completely  extinguish  the  fire,  or  it  would  envelop 
the  whole  building  in  flames  very  quickly.  The 
hole  was  cut,  the  water  was  successfully  applied  and 
the  fire  was  extinguished,  when  it  was  found  that 
although  a  considerable  portion  of  the  kindlings 
had  been  blackened,  none  had  been  thoroughly 
charred. 

This  experience  should  be  compared  with  another 


146  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

in  which  a  fire  was  discovered  in  the  early  morning 
in  the  basement  of  an  apartment  house.  The  maid 
in  the  basement  rushed  outdoors,  leaving  the  door 
open,  and  shouted  "Fire!"  Those  upstairs,  when 
they  attempted  to  descend,  found  smoke  in  the  halls, 
and  returned  to  open  their  windows  and  shout 
"Fire ! "  Before  the  fire  department  could  arrive  the 
building  was  in  flames  and  eight  persons  were  burned 
to  death. 

In  an  iron  kettle,  put  some  gasoline  and  set  fire 
to  it.  When  the  flame  is  burning  high,  lay  over  it 
the  pot  lid.  The  fire  is  instantly  extinguished  be- 
cause, no  matter  how  combustible  it  is,  it  cannot 
burn  without  the  requisite  oxygen.  Compare  this 
with  what  happened  not  long  ago.  A  woman  was 
heating  a  pot  of  fat  for  frying  crullers,  when  it  took 
fire.  She  heroically  seized  the  flaming  pot  by  its 
bail  and  rushed  to  the  sink  and  turned  into  the  burn- 
ing fat  a  stream  of  water  which  of  course  went  to 
the  bottom,  floated  the  fat,  and  distributed  the 
fire  all  over  the  kitchen. 

A  burning  kerosene  lamp  was  upset  in  the  midst 
of  books  and  paper  piled  upon  a  library  table.  No 
one  was  home  but  children.  The  oldest  boy  ordered 
his  younger  brothers  and  sisters  to  bring  him  all 
the  rugs  they  could  lay  hold  of.  He  stationed  one 
child  to  keep  the  library  door  shut,  while  he,  hold- 
ing his  breath,  rushed  in  and  laid  a  rug  over  the  fire 
and  came  out  to  get  a  breath  of  fresh  air.  This 
performance  was  repeated  until  the  fire  was  entirely 
out. 

A  little  girl  was  playing  on  the  lawn  near  where 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    147 

her  brothers  were  celebrating  the  Fourth  of  July, 
when  a  firecracker,  thrown  into  her  lap,  set  fire  to 
her  dress.  Her  mother,  who  was  looking  on  from 
the  piazza,  caught  her  in  her  arms  and  rushed  with 
her  into  the  house,  where  the  fire  was  finally  ex- 
tinguished, but  not  until  the  child  had  been  fatally 
burned. 

A  four-year-old  girl  played  with  a  match  until 
it  took  fire,  and  in  her  fright  she  dropped  it  into  her 
lap.  No  one  was  in  the  room  with  her  at  the  time, 
but  soon  after  her  mother  came  in  and  found  the 
child  holding  her  dress  gathered  into  a  tight  wad  in 
her  lap.  When  she  induced  her  to  release  it  she 
found  a  hole  nearly  a  foot  square  burned  out  of  the 
front  of  the  dress,  but  no  other  damage  done  —  not 
even  were  the  little  hands  burned  at  all.  She 
had  many  times  been .  taught  what  to  do  if  her 
clothes  caught  fire. 

Most  fire  extinguishers  are  devices  for  producing 
carbon  dioxide.  With  this  they  smother  small 
fires  by  pouring  into  the  atmosphere  around  them 
enough  of  the  gas  to  reduce  the  proportion  of 
oxygen  below  15  per  cent. 

Streams  of  water,  when  thrown  in  sufficient 
quantity,  as  by  fire  engines,  extinguish  large  fires 
both  by  cooling  the  fuel  below  its  kindling  tem- 
perature and  by  diluting  the  air  with  steam  until 
the  proportion  of  oxygen  falls  below  15  per  cent. 

One  of  the  most  effective  ways  of  extinguishing  a 
fire  is  to  separate  the  burning  fuel  into  small  por- 
tions. Thus  a  considerable  fire  in  a  fireplace  may 
be  quickly  extinguished  by  merely  distributing  apart 


148  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

from  each  other  the  burning  embers.  Their  mutual 
heat  is  required  to  keep  them  above  the  kindling 
temperature.  A  shovelful  of  burning  coals  when 
taken  from  the  furnace  soon  cool  below  their  kin- 
dling temperature.  The  heat  of  the  rest  of  the  coal 
is  necessary  to  keep  them  burning. 

The  fireman's  ax  and  pick  enable  him  to  extinguish 
fire  by  separating  in  small  pieces  the  burning  parts 
of  wood  in  floor  or  wainscot  of  buildings.  When 
thus  treated,  the  wood  soon  falls  below  its  kindling 
temperature. 

Eggs 

Problems  to  be  solved  by  the  pupils,  mostly  by 
experiments  at  home  or  in  the  laboratory. 

May  we  determine  the  age  of  an  egg  by  its 
specific  gravity?  Procure  .an  egg  laid  within  24 
hours.  Write  its  date  upon  it  and  place  a  number 
upon  it  to  designate  it.  Attach  a  thread  to  its 
large  end  by  a  little  sealing  wax.  (If  you  cannot 
think  why  it  should  be  attached  to  the  large  end 
rather  than  the  small  end,  try  it  attached  to  the 
small  end  and  continue  with  it  so  until  you  get  an 
answer  to  the  question.)  Find  the  specific  gravity 
of  the  egg  and  weigh  it  each  day  thereafter  for  a 
month  or  six  weeks.  The  egg  may  be  kept  in  the 
laboratory  or  any  living  room  all  this  time.  See  if 
you  note  any  connection  between  the  weight  of  the 
egg  and  the  state  of  the  weather  each  day.  Some 
of  our  records  are  as  follows : 

Egg  No.  6,  Feb.  3,  1909.  Wt.  in  air,  60.17  gms. 
Wt.  in  water,  3.35  gms.  Sp.  Gr.  1.059, 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    149 


Feb.    4 

Weight  59.94 

Loss  .23 

clear 

Feb.    5 

Weight  59.74 

Loss  .20 

clear 

Feb.    6 

Weight  59.58 

Loss  .16 

rainy 

Feb.    7 

Weight  59.37 

Loss  .21 

clear 

Feb.    8 

Weight  59.25 

Loss  .12 

damp 

Feb.    9 

Weight  59.05 

Loss  .20 

clear 

Feb.  10 

Weight  58.88 

Loss  .17 

humid 

Feb.  11 

Weight  58.66 

Loss  .22 

clear 

Feb.  12 

Weight  58.45 

Loss  .21 

clear 

Feb.  13 

Weight  58.30 

Loss  .15 

stormy 

Feb.  14 

Weight  58.14 

Loss  .16 

stormy 

Feb.  15 

Weight  57.97 

Loss  .17 

stormy 

Feb.  16 

Weight  57.82 

Loss  .15 

stormy 

Feb.  17 

Weight  57.59 

Loss  .23 

clear 

Feb.  18 

Weight  57.39 

Loss  .20 

clear 

Feb.  19 

Weight  57.22 

Loss  .17 

clear 

Feb.  20 

Weight  57.08 

Loss  .14 

damp 

Feb.  21 

Weight  56.93 

Loss  .15 

damp 

Feb.  22 

Weight  56.78 

Loss  .15 

damp 

On  Feb.  22d  it  floated  on  water.  It  was  not 
dipped  in  water  after  Feb.  3d.  The  date  when  this 
egg  was  laid  was  not  known. 

On  clear  days  it  lost  more  than  on  damp  days. 

This  egg  was  broken  on  Feb.  24th  and  appeared 
to  be  perfectly  fresh.  It  was  allowed  to  dry  natu- 
rally for  two  days  and  then  was  rubbed  up  to  a 
powder,  which  is  still  in  good  condition  (Jan.  12, 
1910). 

Egg  No.  1,  laid  Feb.  25,  1909.  Wt.  58.62  gms. 
Wt.  in  water,  6.06  gms.  Sp.  Gr.  1.115.  On  April 
7th  it  weighed  52.46  gins,  and  floated  on  water. 
It  lost  an  average  of  .15  gm.  a  day  and  required  41 
days  for  it  to  become  Alight  enough  to  float.  It  was 
a  yellow  egg  and  apparently  rather  thick  shelled. 


150  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

Grocers  report  that  yellow  eggs  are  preferred  in  the 
Boston  market  and  white  eggs  are  preferred  in  the 
New  York  market. 

Egg  No.  2.  Wt.  53.72.  Sp.  Gr.  1.096.  Average 
loss  in  wt.  per  day  .17  gm.  Floated  in  28  days. 

Egg  No.  3.  Wt.  44.89.  Sp.  Gr.  1.091.  Average 
loss  in  wt.  per  day  .1  gm.  Floated  in  34  days. 

Egg  No.  4.  Wt.  62.06.  Sp.  Gr.  1.098.  Average 
loss  in  wt.  per  day  .15  gm.  Floated  in  37  days. 

Eggs  Nos.  1  to  4  were  all  laid  within  24  hours  of 
the  beginning  of  the  experiments  with  them. 

These  eggs  differ  so  much  in  specific  gravity  (from 
1.091  to  1.115)  and  the  rate  of  evaporation  from  them 
is  so  different  (from  .11  to  .17)  that  the  age  could 
not  have  been  told  at  all  closely  by  the  specific 
gravity.  This  much,  however,  may  be  concluded 
from  our  experiments :  all  fresh  eggs  sink  in  water. 
Eggs  which  float  in  water  are  at  least  a  month  or 
six  weeks  old  and  have  been  kept  in  a  dry  room  (ex- 
cept that  infected  eggs  may  spoil  in  a  fortnight, 
generate  hydrogen  sulphide  gas,  and  float).  Eggs 
which  are  not  infected  (and  few  appear  to  be)  do 
not  spoil.  They  simply  dry  up.  The  air  space  ap- 
pears at  the  big  end  and  grows  larger  and  larger. 

The  average  egg  must  lose  about  5  gms.  before  it 
will  float,  and  this  will  require  about  five  weeks  in 
dry  atmosphere.  Eggs  may  be  kept  in  moist  at- 
mosphere without  losing  weight,  or  put  to  soak  in 
water  and  again  recover  weight  which  they  may 
have  lost. 

Eggs  are  sometimes  dipped  in  a  diluted  solution 
of  water-glass  to  prevent  evaporation  and  also  to 


THE  TEACHING  OF  PHYSICAL  SCIENCE    151 

prevent  infection.  Some  persons  preserve  them 
by  dipping  them  in  boiling  water  for  a  second. 

A  newly  laid  egg  not  only  sinks  in  water  but  lies 
down  flat  on  its  side.  After  a  week  or  two,  if  it  is 
kept  in  dry  air,  the  large  end  will  rise  a  little  when  it 
is  put  in  water,  on  account  of  the  development  of 
the  air  space  in  that  end.  In  three  or  four  weeks  it 
will  stand  on  its  small  end  at  the  bottom  of  a  tumbler 
of  water.  In  four  to  six  weeks  it  will  float  on  water. 
An  egg  that  is  recently  laid  will  sink  in  a  solution 
of  one  teaspoonful  of  salt  in  a  tumbler  of  water. 

Put  hydrochloric  acid  upon  a  piece  of  eggshell. 
Pass  the  gas  into  limewater.  Put  some  white  of 
egg  into  alcohol.  Find  the  temperature  at  which 
the  white  of  an  egg  coagulates.  Heat  some  white 
of  egg  in  a  test  tube  with  a  strip  of  lead  paper  at  its 
mouth.  Action  on  silver  spoons.  Why  does  a 
dropped  egg  cook  quicker  than  an  egg  in  the  shell? 
How  does  it  happen  that  an  egg  put  into  boiling 
water  in  a  small  cup  to  cook  four  minutes  is  soft 
boiled  while  if  put  into  a  large  vessel  of  boiling 
water  for  the  same  time  may  be  well  done?  Dis- 
solve out  some  of  the  fat  from  the  yolk  of  an  egg 
by  means  of  ether.  Produce  some  black  charcoal 
from  the  white  of  an  egg.  Weigh  the  white  of  an 
egg  in  an  evaporating  dish.  Let  it  dry  two  days 
and  when  it  is  thoroughly  dry  weigh  again  to  find 
out  what  proportion  of  it  was  water. 


VIII 

WHAT   SPECIALIZATION    HAS    DONE    FOR 
PHYSICS  TEACHING1 

IN  his  presidential  address  before  'the  British 
Association  last  summer  Sir  J.  J.  Thomson,  speaking 
of  overspecialization  at  Cambridge  University,  said : 

"Premature  specialization  injures  the  student  by  depriving 
him  of  adequate  literary  culture.  ...  It  retards  the  progress 
of  science  by  tending  to  isolate  one  science  from  another.  The 
boundaries  between  the  sciences  are  arbitrary,  and  tend  to 
disappear  as  science  progresses.  The  principles  of  one  science 
often  find  most  striking  and  suggestive  illustrations  in  the 
phenomena  of  another." 

It  is  time  to  inquire  whether  early  specialization 
among  undergraduates  in  American  colleges  is 
unfitting  them  both  for  research  and  for  teaching. 
The  theory  still  prevails  in  college  that  it  is  good 
to  know  more  than  one  thing,  otherwise  there  would 
be  no  minors,  but  minors,  according  to  our  closely 
differentiated  scheme,  are  little  else  than  divisions 
of  the  major  subject.  The  result  appears  to  be 
that  we  are  producing  graduates  whose  outlook  is 
too  limited  to  enable  them  to  carry  on  a  piece 
of  original  research.  They  become  research  assist- 

1  Read  before  sections  B  and  L,  American  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  Boston,  December  31,  1909. 

152 


SPECIALIZATION  AND  PHYSICS  TEACHING    153 

ants  with  little  prospect  of  ever  being  very  success- 
ful at  independent  work. 

L.  H.  Baekeland  in  Science,  Vol.  25,  p.  845,  says : 

"I  challenge  you  to  name  any  truly  great  man  who  was 
merely  a  specialist.  .  .  .  One-sided  pursuits  are  apt  to  make 
us  very  narrow-minded.  .  .  .  Overspecialized  science  is  apt 
to  degenerate  into  a  mere  hobby  where  all  conception  of  true 
proportions  and  harmony  are  lost." 

The  evil  of  early  specialization  is  particularly 
apparent  when  we  consider  the  cause  of  education 
-  especially  that  within  the  college  walls.  Not 
only  has  the  regime  signally  failed  to  qualify  young 
men  for  teaching,  but  there  has  grown  up  along 
with  it  a  distaste  for  and  even  a  disrespect  for  teach- 
ing. There  are  about  150,000  undergraduate  stu- 
dents who  annually  contract  with  the  colleges  of 
the  land  for  instruction,  but  no  one  seems  to  want 
to  teach  them.  The  colleges  announce  a  full  staff 
of  instructors  —  the  title  still  remains  —  but  it  is 
difficult  to  find  a  college  instructor,  educated  within 
the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years,  who  makes  it  his  chief 
interest  to  teach  or  who  likes  to  acknowledge  that 
it  is  his  chief  business.  When  asked  what  he  is 
doing  he  tries  to  think  of  some  little  piece  of  research, 
however  insignificant,  and  he  shows  impatience  and 
evident  embarrassment  if  obliged  to  say  that  he  is 
engaged  chiefly  in  teaching. 

President  Hadley  of  Yale,  speaking  at  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  February  22,  1909,  on  "The 
Danger  of  Overspecialization,"  said  : 

"It  is  not  enough  to  discover  truth,  we  must  make  it  known 
among  the  citizens  of  this  self-governing  commonwealth.  The 


154  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

college  is  ceasing  to  have  the  influence  which  it  ought  to  have 
upon  the  world." 

From  the  New  York  Times,  December  20,  1909 : 

"President  Lowell,  of  Harvard,  has  expressed  himself  as 
heartily  in  favor  of  bringing  the  college  course  nearer  to  the 
practical  concerns  of  the  community.  'A  university,'  he 
says,  '  to  be  of  any  great  value,  must  grow  out  of  the  community 
in  which  it  lives  and  must  be  in  absolute  touch  with  the  com- 
munity, doing  all  the  good  it  can  and  doing  what  the  community 
needs.  Any  institution  which  is  not  in  absolutely  close  touch 
with  the  community  about  it  is  doomed  to  wither  and  die.'  " 

New  York  State,  which  is  typical,  has  about 
800  high  schools  and  probably  there  are  not  a  dozen 
teachers  outside  of  New  York  City  who  are  employed 
in  these  high  schools  to  teach  physics  alone.  Still, 
when  a  young  man  goes  to  college  with  the  inten- 
tion of  fitting  himself  to  teach  in  one  of  those  high 
schools  he  is  compelled  to  choose  a  major  subject, 
and  if  it  be  physics,  for  example,  his  adviser  will 
steer  him  through  a  course  so  highly  specialized  in 
physics  and  so  devoid  of  other  things  that  he  is 
quite  unfit  to  teach  anything,  and  especially  a 
general  beginners'  course.  Among  the  courses  in 
physics  which  he  takes  none  will  have  reference  to 
the  experiences  of  life,  but  each  will  be  a  distinct 
attempt  to  prepare  for  the  next  technical  course 
beyond.  Even  if  his  duty  was  to  teach  physics 
alone  he  would  not  know  enough  about  chemistry 
and  other  allied  sciences  to  teach  physics  properly. 
But  what  does  the  college  course  do  for  the  750  high 
schools  of  New  York  State  in  which  one  person  has 
to  teach  all  the  sciences  ?  Or  what  does  it  do  for  the 


SPECIALIZATION  AND  PHYSICS  TEACHING    155 

570  high  schools  which  have  only  three  teachers, 
or  less,  apiece,  and  in  which  some  one  has  to  teach 
more  than  all  the  sciences  ?  No  one,  however,  can 
visit  many  of  these  schools  without  reaching  the 
conclusion  that  some  of  them  have  excellent  physics 
teaching.  In  some  cases  the  credit  for  this  is  due 
to  the  state  normal  schools,  and  in  some  schools  the 
physics  teaching  appears  to  be  good  because  they 
are  not  trying  to  fit  for  college. 
>  One  cannot  read  the  papers  of  to-day  without 
feeling  that  the  community  is  on  the  point  of  mak- 
ing great  changes  in  its  educational  institutions. 
It  appears  to  want  undergraduate  students  to  take 
general  courses  in  several  sciences.  It  wants  these 
courses  to  be  far  more  general  than  any  courses 
now  are.  It  will  doubtless  insist  that  these  courses 
shall  be  given  by  men  who  can  teach,  and  who  are 
willing  to  devote  their  best  efforts  to  it.  A  genera- 
tion or  so  ago  the  greatest  men  in  all  the  colleges 
were  great  teachers.  With  the  establishment  of 
universities  and  the  encouragement  of  research 
came  the  decadence  of  teaching.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  both  research  and  teaching  will  be  fostered  in 
the  future.  If,  however,  things  go  on  as  at  present, 
it  seems  probable  that  the  revival  of  teaching  will 
be  brought  about  by  separating  the  research  func- 
tion from  that  of  teaching. 

Our  present  scheme  of  science  teaching  was 
founded  upon  educational  theories  which  are  not 
now  entertained.  We  thought  that  by  drill  we  could 
develop  certain  faculties  which  would  functionize 
in  other  fields  when  called  upon  to  do  so.  What- 


156  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

ever  faculties  the  college  teacher  thought  his  pupils 
ought  to  have,  these  he  made  it  the  duty  of  the  high- 
school  teacher  to  produce.  We  thought  high-school 
pupils  might  be  trained  in  observation,  in  accuracy, 
etc.  We  thought  they  might  be  equipped  with  a 
catalogue  of  fundamental  principles  and  laws,  the 
use  of  which  might  appear  when  they  got  to  college. 
We  thought  it  possible  to  teach  one  single  science 
thoroughly,  and  we  said  much  about  teaching  pupils 
to  be  scientific  by  concentration  upon  one  thing 
and  we  spoke  slightingly  of  the  general  courses. 
It  now  seems  probable  that  a  man  trained  to  con- 
servatism in  one  field  is  no  less  likely  to  be  a  wild- 
cat in  some  other  field.  It  has  been  pointed  out 
that  in  matters  of  education,  and  particularly  in 
the  matter  of  prescribing  work  for  the  high  schools, 
the  college  physicists  have  been  strangely  unscientific, 
dealing  with  snap  judgments  when  reliable  data 
were  not  at  hand ;  prescribing  out  of  ignorance 
where  a  council  of  doctors  would  have  been  baffled. 
Who  knows  that  the  high-school  pupil  has  reached 
the  time  of  life  when  he  can  be  trained  in  exact 
science  without  doing  him  violence?  The  com- 
munity wants  its  young  people  informed  about  the 
interpretations  which  may  be  put  upon  the  phenom- 
ena and  experiences  of  daily  life.  The  attempt 
to  make  pupils  scientific  before  their  time  may  pre- 
vent their  ever  becoming  scientific.  Intolerance 
of  those  who  have  the  gift  of  imagination  may  lead 
one  to  try  to  suppress  a  Davy  or  a  Maxwell. 

Public  dissatisfaction  with  the  teaching  of  to-day 
is  expressed  by  many.     Let  me  quote  a  few. 


SPECIALIZATION  AND  PHYSICS  TEACHING    157 

L.  B.  Avery,  of  California : 

"Physics  is  the  most  fundamental  in  its  conceptions  and  the 
most  practical  in  its  applications  of  all  the  sciences.  The 
proposition  to  leave  any  portion  of  those  who  take  a  complete 
high  school  course  with  no  knowledge  of  it  is  in  itself  a  com- 
plete acknowledgment  of  the  educational  inadequacy  of  the 
present  methods." 

L.  H.  Bailey,  of  Cornell: 

"Distinguish  between  the  teaching  function  and  the  research 
function.  We  are  teachers.  It  is  our  business  to  open  the 
minds  of  the  young  to  the  facts  of  science.  .  .  .  Nature  study 
is  a  new  mode  of  teaching,  not  a  new  subject.  It  is  just  as 
applicable  to  the  college  as  to  the  common  school.  .  .  .  We 
should  be  interested  more  in  the  student  than  in  the  science." 

T.  M.  Balliet,  of  New  York  University,  in  School 
Review,  Vol.  16,  p.  217,  has  an  exceedingly  good 
article,  but  too  long  to  quote,  on  "The  [evil]  Influ- 
ence of  Present  Methods  of  Graduate  Instruction  on 
the  Teaching  in  Secondary  Schools." 

W.  S.  Franklin,  of  Lehigh : 

"My  experience  is,  most  emphatically,  that  a  student  may 
measure  a  thing  and  know  nothing  at  all  about  it  and  I  believe 
that  the  present  high  school  courses  in  elementary  physics  in 
which  quantitative  laboratory  work  is  so  strongly  emphasized, 
are  altogether  bad.  ...  I  believe  that  physical  sciences  should 
be  taught  in  the  secondary  schools  with  reference  primarily  to 
their  practical  applications.  ...  I  cannot  endure  a  so-called 
knowledge  of  elementary  science  which  does  not  relate  to  some 
actual  physical  condition  or  thing.  .  .  .  Either  you  must 
create  an  actual  world  of  the  unusual  phenomena  of  nature  by 
purchasing  an  elaborate  and  expensive  equipment  of  scientific 
apparatus,  or  you  must  make  use  of  the  boy's  everyday  world  of 
actual  conditions  and  things." 


158  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

David  Starr  Jordan,  of  Leland  Stanford  Uni- 
versity : 

"For  colleges  to  specify  certain  classes  of  subjects  regardless 
of  the  real  interest  of  the  secondary  schools  and  their  pupils  is 
a  species  of  impertinence  which  only  tradition  justifies.  ...  In 
general,  the  high-school  graduate  who  has  a  training  worth 
while  in  the  conduct  of  life  is  also  well  fitted  to  enter  college  for 
further  training.  The  average  American  boy  quits  the  high 
school  in  disgust  because  he  cannot  interpret  its  work  in  terms 
of  life." 

S.  V.  Kellerman : 

"Only  by  teaching  honestly  what  the  world  needs,  and  can 
use,  may  the  schools  accomplish  their  lofty  aims." 

No  one  has  stated  the  dissatisfaction  with  present 
practices  more  justly  than  Principal  W.  D.  Lewis 
in  the  Outlook,  December  11,  1909,  in  an  article 
entitled  "College  Domination  of  High  Schools," 
from  which  I  make  an  extract  or  two. 

"The  high  school  is  failing  in  its  mission  because  its  methods 
and  scope  of  instruction  are  determined  by  college  entrance 
examinations  made  by  specialists  whose  point  of  view  is  not  the 
welfare  of  the  student,  but  the  (supposed)  requirements  for 
advanced  study  of  certain  subjects.  .  .  .  Our  present  college- 
dictated  high-school  course  is  ill  adapted  to  the  real  needs  of 
the  people  in  that  it  places  the  emphasis  on  the  wrong  subjects, 
and  practically  eliminates  those  that  would  be  of  the  greatest 
practical  value  in  the  lives  of  the  vast  majority  of  pupils  whose 
only  opportunity  for  higher  education  is  in  the  public  high  school. 
No  less  destructive  of  the  welfare  of  the  masses  is  the  limita- 
tion in  method  of  treatment  of  the  subjects  taught.  .  .  .  Col- 
lege teachers  have  written  the  courses,  trained  the  teachers,  set 
the  examinations,  and  execrated  the  results." 


IX 

THE  SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  REQUIRE- 
MENTS IN  PHYSICS  OF  THE  COLLEGE 
ENTRANCE  EXAMINATION  BOARD1 

PHYSICS  is  poorly  taught  in  the  colleges  —  quite 
as  poorly  taught  in  the  colleges  as  in  the  high 
schools. 

The  duty  of  fitting  the  colleges  for  the  high-school 
graduates  is  quite  as  urgent  as  that  of  fitting  the 
high-school  pupils  for  the  colleges. 

The  colleges  should  prepare  teachers  of  physics 
for  the  high  schools  but  those  who  are  most  recently 
come  from  college  are  the  most  conspicuously  unfit 
for  teaching  high-school  pupils. 

These  conditions  must  be  kept  in  mind  when 
preparing  a  syllabus  of  work  for  high  schools. 

By  years  of  contact  with  high-school  problems 
some  college  graduates  who  are  capable  of  adapta- 
tion have  been  transmuted  into  good  teachers  of 
physics.  Such  were  the  six  high-school  men  chosen 
by  the  College  Entrance  Examination  Board  to  pre- 
pare the  present  syllabus. 

With  the  clear  understanding  of  conditions  as 
they  exist  at  present,  they  did  the  wisest  thing  that 

1  Read  before  the  New  York  Schoolmasters'  Association,  November 
13,  1909. 

159 


160  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

could  be  done  under  the  circumstances.  Education 
must  be  a  conservative  thing.  Changes  must  not 
amount  to  a  revolution.  What  these  men  did 
was  a  step  in  the  right  direction,  and  a  sufficiently 
long  step  to  be  practicable,  yet  it  is  not  the  end  of 
progress  toward  better  things,  it  is  merely  a  small 
beginning. 

It  is  worth  while  to  remind  ourselves  that  the  so- 
called  College  Entrance  Board  is  not  in  reality  a 
college  entrance  board.  It  is  merely  an  examina- 
tion bureau.  It  has  gradually  succeeded  in  getting 
its  certificate  accepted  for  entrance  by  most  of  the 
colleges  just  as  the  regents  of  the  state  of  New  York 
have  done,  but  unlike  the  regents  this  board  could 
not  continue  to  exist  if  its  requirements  on  examina- 
tions did  not  conform  pretty  closely  to  what  the 
colleges  demand.  Its  real  name  is,  The  College 
Entrance  Examination  Board  —  with  the  emphasis 
on  examination.  By  calling  it  as  we  do,  for  short, 
the  College  Entrance  Board,  we  sometimes  mislead 
ourselves  as  to  its  importance.  It  cannot  be  expected 
to  be  so  much  a  leader  as  a  follower  in  educational 
progress.  The  committee  was  well  aware  of  the 
restricted  functions  of  the  board  and  therefore 
committed  it  to  no  embarrassing  position. 

On  the  other  hand,  this  board  as  an  exponent  of 
the  colleges  makes  it  known  that  the  colleges  have 
now  for  the  first  time  become  ready  to  recognize 
the  fact  that  the  high  schools  are  better  able  than 
the  colleges  to  determine  what  should  be  expected 
of  high-school  pupils.  It  behooves  the  high  schools 
to  get  ready  for  some  constructive  work  and  to  take 


COLLEGE  ENTRANCE  REQUIREMENTS    161 

a  step  forward  each  year  in  the  matter  of  these  physics 
requirements. 

Let  us  first  examine  the  report  of  this  committee 
and  see  what  changes  they  have  made  and  then 
consider  the  next  changes  which  should  be  con- 
templated. 

The  greatest  hindrance  to  good  teaching  is  not 
the  syllabus.  That,  like  all  codes  of  law,  is  capable 
of  many  interpretations  and  may  by  exegesis  be 
made  to  justify  all  practices;  not  the  examiners, 
for  under  the  regime  of  the  College  Entrance  Exami- 
nation Board  they  have  usually  been  broad-minded 
men,  and  at  any  rate  their  sole  function  is  to  frame 
questions  —  which  again  are  capable  of  many 
interpretations  —  but  the  real  block  upon  high- 
school  teaching  is  the  readers  and  raters  of  examina- 
tion papers  and  laboratory  notebooks.  These  men 
are  a  law  unto  themselves  and  their  rules  of  conduct 
have  never  been  published.  It  is  certain  that  they 
have  not  the  same  outlook  upon  education  as  the 
board  has  or  as  its  examiners  have,  and  it  is  equally 
certain  that  they  exert  ten  times  as  much  power  as 
either  the  board  or  the  examiners  in  shaping  the 
high-school  work. 

The  most  unsatisfactory  part  of  the  physics  re- 
quirement (or  supposed  requirement)  has  been  the 
laboratory  work.  I  say,  supposed  requirement,  for 
probably  no  one  in  any  position  to  require  has  ever 
wished  for  such  extremities  of  mathematical  frivolities 
as  many  of  the  recent  offshoots  from  the  colleges 
have  vainly  tried  to  implant  in  high-school  labora- 
tories. As  usual  the  disciples  in  trying  to  imitate 


162  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

their  masters  have  greatly  exaggerated  their  foibles. 
Unconscious  that  what  is  bad  for  college  students 
is  worse  for  high-school  pupils,  they  have  seized 
upon  what  was  either  evil  or  without  significance 
in  their  own  college  laboratory  work  and  wrung 
interminable  changes  upon  it  for  high-school  pupils. 

The  real  laboratory  requirements,  however,  as 
executed  by  the  readers  have  been  a  great  handicap 
to  good  teaching.  The  reader's  interpretation  of 
what  an  orthodox  laboratory  notebook  should  be 
has  never  been  authorized  and  never  published. 
From  the  record  of  success  and  failures  of  their 
candidates  the  high-school  teachers  have  inferred 
that  the  readers  insisted  upon  the  notebooks  con- 
taining much  of  that  which  I  should  regard  as 
not  physics  at  all.  The  high-school  teachers  have 
likewise  found  that  small  credit  would  be  given 
to  that  which  this  committee  declares  is  the  very 
aim  of  laboratory  work,  namely,  "to  supplement 
the  pupil's  fund  of  concrete  knowledge  and  to  fur- 
nish forceful  illustrations  of  fundamental  principles 
and  their  practical  applications.  To  perform  exer- 
cises such  as  yield  results  capable  of  ready  interpre- 
tation and  free  from  the  disguise  of  unintelligible 
units.  .  .  .  Unnecessary  mathematical  difficulties 
being  avoided  and  care  being  exercised  to  prevent 
the  student's  losing  sight  of  the  concrete  facts,  in  the 
multiplication  of  symbols." 

Most  of  the  unjust  rating  of  candidates  for  admis- 
sion to  college  has  been  the  result  of  the  absurd 
attempt  of  human  minds  not  widely  trained  to  esti- 
mate the  value  of  the  laboratory  work  of  a  total 


COLLEGE  ENTRANCE  REQUIREMENTS    163 

stranger  by  glancing  over  in  four  minutes  the  notes 
which  required  a  year  in  the  writing.  No  demand 
has  been  more  insistent  than  that  this  abuse  be 
stopped.  A  majority  of  that  committee  of  high- 
school  men  went  into  the  meeting  fully  determined 
that  it  must  be  stopped. 

The  first  and  most  important  reform  which  they 
have  brought  about  is  that  the  College  Entrance 
Examination  Board  will  no  longer  undertake  the 
marking  or  examination  of  laboratory  notebooks. 
The  high-school  teacher  is  to  certificate  the  labora- 
tory work  wholly  according  to  his  best  judgment. 
It  is  no  longer  indicated  to  him  by  the  syllabus 
what  shall  be  the  nature  of  the  laboratory  work. 

It  will  doubtless  need  to  be  that  which  will  best 
help  the  pupils  to  pass  the  topical  examinations, 
but  I  estimate  that  fully  one-half  of  the  time  now 
given  to  laboratory  work  in  many  of  the  best  schools 
does  nothing  toward  helping  the  students  to  pass 
the  examination  questions  and  does  nothing  toward 
giving  them  a  clearer  understanding  of  physical 
principles.  Since  half  of  the  time  given  to  the  study 
of  physics  in  these  schools  is  devoted  to  the  laboratory 
the  way  is  now  open  for  them  to  save  one-quarter 
of  their  efforts  for  work  that  is  worth  while.  If  the 
committee  had  done  nothing  else  than  to  abolish 
the  rating  of  laboratory  notebooks  by  readers,  we 
could  easily  have  been  satisfied  for  one  year.  For 
now  there  is  no  reason  why  a  capable  teacher  may 
not  make  all  of  his  laboratory  teaching  fruitful. 
Before,  much  of  it  had  to  be  barren  by  specific  re- 
quirement. 


164  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

In  the  number  of  topics  which  appear  in  the  sylla- 
bus the  committee  left  a  larger  prescription  than 
the  high-school  teacher  can  do  well  —  but  it  probably 
did  all  the  pruning  that  it  was  safe  to  do  this  time. 
The  most  efficient  teachers  are  the  ones  who  will 
see  the  largest  possibilities  in  each  topic  for  instruc- 
tion and  will  therefore  feel  the  greatest  burden. 
Many  complaints  from  such  persons  are  coming 
in,  and  now  that  the  high-school  teachers  have  their 
hand  in  they  will  doubtless  bring  about  a  reduc- 
tion in  the  number  of  topics  when  the  syllabus  is 
next  revised.  The  committee  probably  had  in 
mind  that  the  field  was  too  broad  to  cover  thor- 
oughly when  they  made  their  second  recommenda- 
tion, which  reads  as  follows : 

"  We  urge  upon  those  who  prepare  the  examination  questions 
that  these  be  so  planned  that  students  who  have  received  fair 
preparation  on  the  work  as  here  outlined  may  reasonably  be 
expected  to  pass." 

This  sounds  very  different  from  the  boast  which 
has  been  made  that  after  casting  out  one-third  of 
each  class  during  the  four  years  of  the  high-school 
course  we  serve  the  cause  still  further  by  knocking 
out  half  of  those  who  try  for  admission  to  college. 
This  committee  of  high-school  men  speaks  with  some 
of  the  missionary  spirit  appropriate  to  those  who  in 
the  service  of  the  people  are  trying  to  extend  the 
benefits  of  education. 

It  is  not  expected,  I  presume,  that  I  should  discuss 
with  this  audience  the  specific  additions  or  omis- 
sions in  the  list  of  topics.  You  care  not,  I  presume, 
whether  /  =  ma  is  included  or  excluded.  Yet  I 


COLLEGE  ENTRANCE  REQUIREMENTS     165 

must  tell  you  that  a  considerable  amount  of  such 
pestiferous  knowledge  has  been  removed  from  the 
syllabus. 

Now  a  few  words  as  to  the  future.  I  am  speak- 
ing to  an  audience  composed  of  principals  of  second- 
ary schools  and  of  the  teachers  of  all  the  various 
high-school  subjects.  We  all  have,  however,  a 
common  cause,  and  it  is  upon  our  common  problems 
that  I  wish  to  speak.  The  same  thing  is  the  matter 
with  physics  teaching  as  with  all  other  subjects. 
I  saw  a  young  college  graduate  teaching  a  high- 
school  class  in  English.  She  had  detained  them  six 
weeks  on  the  first  third  of  Ivanhoe,  using  the  method 
of  the  higher  criticism.  She  informed  me  that  it 
was  the  only  way  to  get  them  ready  for  college. 
Which  is  true.  It  is  also  true  that  it  was  the  only 
way  she  knew  for  teaching  Ivanhoe,  and  for  both  of 
these  the  colleges  are  to  blame,  but,  worse  than  all, 
when  after  attending  educational  meetings  and 
reading  educational  literature  and  having  a  few 
years'  more  contact  with  the  high-school  pupils 
she  learns  a  better  way  of  teaching  Ivanhoe,  she 
will  be  prevented  by  college  requirements  from  using 
it,  unless  the  high-school  men  reform  the  require- 
ments. 

I  saw  another  college  graduate  teaching  botany 
in  a  Western  high  school  —  a  school  accredited 
by  the  state  university.  They  had  for  many  weeks 
been  examining  plant  cells  with  a  compound  micro- 
scope and  filling  many  pages  of  notebooks  with 
drawings  of  them.  I  asked  if  so  much  of  this  work 
were  desirable.  She  said,  "No,  but  the  university 


166  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

inspector  requires  it."  There  was  lying  upon  her 
desk  a  copy  of  Bailey's  Botany,  full  of  useful  knowl- 
edge such  as  those  high-school  pupils  need.  I  asked 
her  if  it  would  not  be  better  to  give  them  that. 
She  said,  "The  university  would  not  approve  it." 
It  perhaps  should  be  said  in  justice  to  the  universities 
that  such  approval  or  disapproval  generally  conies 
from  a  minor  officer  —  but  so  long  as  the  universities 
allow  their  minor  officers  to  act  as  their  spokesmen 
they  cannot  escape  the  charge  of  being  either  igno- 
rant of  or  indifferent  to  the  cause  of  secondary  edu- 
cation. These  are  not  peculiar  cases.  There  is 
no  subject  which  can  be  well  taught  in  the  high 
schools  to-day  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  colleges 
prevent  it. 

The  case  of  high-school  physics  to-day  is  analogous 
to  a  situation  which  obtained  for  Latin  thirty  years 
ago.  It  was  the  practice  of  some  teachers  then  to 
spend  two  or  three  weeks  previous  to  the  teaching 
of  Virgil  in  training  pupils  in  the  rules  of  the  gram- 
mar which  applied  to  scanning  poetry.  These  rules 
with  their  exceptions  numbered  several  score. 
They  were  learned,  "and  stored  in  memory  so  that 
pupils  might  have  them  to  use  when  they  came  to 
the  business  of  reading  Virgil."  It  often  happened 
that  Virgil  was  taught  by  another  teacher  and  fre- 
quently this  teacher  made  no  mention  of  scanning, 
but  of  course  if  he  did,  he  discovered  no  ability  in 
the  class  to  use  those  rules  of  grammar.  This  is 
precisely  the  case  of  high-school  physics  to-day. 
The  high-school  teacher  feels  obliged  to  teach  what 
might  be  very  well  called  the  rules  of  physical  gram- 


COLLEGE  ENTRANCE  REQUIREMENTS    167 

mar.  Some  teachers  know  that  language  teaching 
must  come  before  grammar,  but  the  real  powers 
that  prescribe  the  work  for  all  teachers,  good  and 
bad  alike,  have  not  yet  got  beyond  the  a-b,  ab  method 
of  teaching.  After  compelling  the  high-school  teach- 
ers to  teach  by  an  impossible  method  and  one  long 
since  discredited  in  other  subjects,  these  college 
people  are  surprised  to  find  that  the  high-school 
pupils  do  not  understand  physics. 

This  topical  syllabus  is  a  list  of  principles.  A  few 
teachers  are  urging  that  some  practical  applications 
be  added,  as  if  to  say,  "Some  few  sentences  from 
good  literature  should  be  appended  to  interpret 
the  rules  of  grammar,"  but  for  every  one  teacher 
who  dares  to  suggest  this  a  dozen  will  respond,  "  We 
have  not  time  to  teach  applications,  the  list  of 
principles  is  so  long,  and  in  any  case  we  cannot  teach 
applications  before  we  teach  principles."  And  the 
readers  of  examination  papers  on  their  part  say, 
"We  cannot  rate  questions  on  applications  of 
principles ;  they  are  too  indefinite ;  we  must  mark 
on  the  principles  and  particularly  on  the  mathe- 
matical work,  for  that  is  definite."  The  examiners 
have  on  several  occasions  attempted  to  encourage 
teachers  to  enrich  their  work  in  physics  by  asking 
some  general  question  about,  say,  the  heating  of 
buildings.  Such  questions  cause  great  perplexity 
to  the  readers,  and  they  decide  by  conference  what 
specific  answer  will  be  given  full  credit  and  allow 
nothing  for  any  other.  As,  for  example,  if  the 
candidate  explains  specific  heat  in  answer  to  the 
above  question,  it  will  be  rated  correct ;  but  a  para- 


168  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

graph  or  a  page  of  other  replies,  however  intelli- 
gent, will  be  rejected  without  credit. 

The  makers  of  the  syllabus  and  of  the  examina- 
tion questions  are  still  further  moved  to  eliminate 
applications  because  applications  in  physics  must 
of  necessity  vary  with  locality,  occupation,  sex  of 
pupils,  etc.,  and  the  whole  business  of  standardizing 
physics  and  bringing  about  a  glorious  uniformity 
runs  counter  to  this. 

The  truth  is  that  the  so-called  fundamental 
doctrines  of  physics  are  fundamental  neither  to  the 
science  of  physics  nor  to  the  teaching  of  that  science. 
Our  doctrines  in  physics  are  no  more  fundamental 
than  they  are  in  religion.  We  change  them  oftener. 
Neither  are  these  principles  any  more  help  to  the 
teaching  of  physics  than  Calvinism  is  in  the  teach- 
ing of  religion. 

I  hope  the  high-school  men,  pushed  on  by  the 
public  which  is  behind  them,  will  gradually  change 
that  list  of  principles  in  physics  to  a  list  of  physical 
phenomena  or  rather  experiences  which  one  may 
encounter  in  life  and  of  which  the  ordinary  man 
desires  an  explanation.  And  I  predict  that  when 
high-school  pupils  have  been  taught  to  notice  the 
experiences  of  a  physical  sort  which  their  lives 
present  to  them  and  to  classify  them  so  that  one 
fact  throws  light  on  another,  they  will  come  to  the 
college  instruction  with  a  gratifying  ability  to  grasp 
physical  principles.  But  it  must  be  their  own 
life  experiences,  found  outside  of  the  conventional 
laboratory  —  and  not  such  as  may  be  prescribed 
for  them  by  some  central  body,  whose  only  anxiety 


COLLEGE  ENTRANCE  REQUIREMENTS    169 

is  to  rate  and  make  uniform  the  contents  of  pupils' 
minds. 

Our  besetting  sin  in  physics  teaching  is  something 
which  goes  under  the  euphonious  name  of  thor- 
oughness. We  have  a  block-measuring  mania  in 
some  parts  of  the  country.  Pupils  are  required  to 
measure  the  four  edges  representing  the  length  of 
a  block  of  wood  to  the  tenth  of  a  millimeter,  which 
is  2^-j  part  of  an  inch.  These  are  to  be  averaged 
and  the  result  taken  as  the  true  length.  In  like 
manner,  the  four  edges  representing  the  width 
and  the  four  representing  the  thickness  are  to  be 
treated,  and  then  these  results  are  to  be  multiplied 
together  and  the  volume  recorded  in  terms  which 
represent  less  than  i';ooo,ooo  of  a  cubic  inch.  The 
pupils  know  that  the  exercise  lacks  common  sense, 
since  the  measuring  sticks  are  crude,  the  edges  of 
the  blocks  are  battered,  the  faces  are  not  perfect 
planes,  and  the  human  eye  is  incapable  of  reading 
such  microscopic  dimensions.  If  such  training 
has  any  effect,  it  would  seem  rather  to  disqualify 
them  for  making  useful  measurements  like  the 
length  of  the  schoolroom  or  estimating  its  height. 
Consider  the  years  spent  in  drill.  The  elementary- 
school  teacher  devotes  a  very  large  portion  of  time 
to  drill  upon  mathematics.  The  high-school  teacher 
thinks  the  grammar-school  training  is  defective  and 
he  takes  up  the  drill  upon  mathematics.  The 
college  teacher  believes  the  high-school  training  is 
defective  and  he  attempts  the  same  drill.  In  this 
series  of  onslaughts  upon  the  students  the  college 
teacher  effects  the  least  results  and  the  elementary- 


170  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

school  teacher's  work  is  the  most  efficient.  In- 
vestigations show  that  drill  in  mathematics  beyond 
a  certain  few  years  of  it  have  no  effect  upon  the 
pupils'  abilities. 

The  percentage  of  high-school  pupils  studying 
mathematics  increased  during  the  fifteen  years,  1890- 
1905,  from  66  per  cent  to  88  per  cent,  and  during  the 
same  time  the  percentage  of  those  studying  physics 
decreased  from  22  per  cent  to  15  per  cent  and  as 
though  that  were  not  bad  enough  we  have  tried  to 
convert  physics  into  mathematics,  and  we  have  been 
told  that  this  was  in  the  interests  of  thoroughness. 

I  predict  that  school  pupils  will  some  time  have 
the  privilege  which  we,  who  have  got  beyond  the 
domination  of  our  schoolmasters,  enjoy  of  learn- 
ing many  things  with  the  intention  of  forgetting 
them  immediately  —  more  than  half  of  the  subject 
of  physics  should  be  so  treated.  If  we  adults  had 
to  learn  thoroughly  and  retain  for  somebody's 
examination  one-tenth  of  that  which  we  find  it  both 
delightful  and  profitable  to  learn  each  day  we  should 
be  miserable. 

These  children  know  wherein  we  wrong  them  and 
the  best  of  them  are  longing  for  the  time  when 
they  may  rise  above  us.  Is  there  any  reason 
why  we  should  not  be  willing  that  the  children 
should  learn  by  the  same  method  which  we  find 
profitable  ?  We  learn  by  the  smattering  method  — 
first  a  passing  introduction  —  a  mere  fleeting  impres- 
sion —  then  time  for  the  ideas  to  incubate,  and  after 
a  while  another  meeting  with  these  ideas  from  per- 
haps a  different  standpoint  followed  by  casual 


COLLEGE  ENTRANCE  REQUIREMENTS    171 

meetings  at  intervals.  The  method  of  the  daily 
newspaper  reader  is  producing  clear  thinkers. 

Another  privilege  which  every  person  young  and 
old  rightly  prizes  is  that  of  learning  something  about 
many  things  which  we  cannot  understand  and  ought 
not  to  be  examined  upon.  The  requirements  in 
physics  should  be  cut  down  so  that  there  may  be 
time  to  thus  enrich  the  work  in  physics  by  lectures 
and  outside  reading.  We  have  preached  against 
mere  memoriter  work  until  our  preaching  has  taken 
some  effect  in  high-school  teaching  but  we  continue 
to  give  examinations  which  no  amount  of  general 
intelligence  would  enable  one  to  pass.  No  faculty 
nor  body  of  graduate  students  could  pass  the  entrance 
examinations  —  only  those  can  pass  them  who  have 
recently  crammed  their  memories  with  the  con- 
ventional material  which  appears  nowhere  else  than 
in  examinations.  We  have  heard  that  high  schools 
are  deteriorating  because  their  pupils  do  not  pass 
entrance  examinations  to  college,  West  Point  Mili- 
tary Academy,  and  the  like.  I  undertake  to  say 
that  the  more  rational  our  instruction  becomes  the 
less  will  our  pupils  be  able  to  pass  the  examinations 
as  now  given.  Perhaps  it  is  a  commendation  of 
the  high  schools  that  the  secretary  of  the  College 
Entrance  Examination  Board  notes  in  his  last 
report  that  a  larger  number  of  candidates  than  usual 
failed  to  pass  the  examinations. 

An  eminent  authority  says,  "Really  educated 
people  are  just  those  who  have  forgotten  more  than 
others."  It  is  essential  to  good  thinking  that  one 
should  not  retain  in  memory  much  unorganized  and 


172  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

useless  material.  Ideas  sometimes  require  a  long 
period  of  incubation.  Inner  intellectual  life  of 
extraordinary  wealth  is  often  hidden  because  of 
lack  of  means  of  adequate  verbal  expression  or  per- 
haps lack  of  the  special  gift  of  passing  written 
examinations. 

It  might  be  well  for  this  association  to  appoint 
a  commission  to  investigate  the  returns  now  on  file 
with  the  secretary  of  the  College  Entrance  Exami- 
nation Board.  It  is  idle  for  individual  pupils 
or  teachers  to  attempt  the  matter  of  appeal  but  it 
is  the  duty  of  the  secondary  schools  to  have  a  com- 
mission for  this  purpose.  I  believe  there  are  just 
as  good  persons  kept  out  of  college  as  are  admitted 
by  these  examinations.  The  high-school  teachers 
know  before  the  examinations  who  are  qualified  to 
enter  college  and  they  know  what  ones  have  injus- 
tice done  them  by  the  examinations.  It  is  the  duty 
of  some  one  to  defend  the  pupils  and  to  defend  the 
good  name  of  the  schools. 


LEARNING  FROM  EXPERIENCE1 

WHEN  one  says  he  has  reached  a  certain  conclusion 
from  his  experience,  particularly  if  that  experience 
has  been  prolonged  and  varied,  he  usually  expects 
us  to  consider  him  an  authority.  Nothing,  however, 
is  more  common  than  for  one  person  to  dispute  the 
conclusions  drawn  from  another's  experience  and  to 
appeal  to  his  own  experience  for  counter-evidence. 
One  who  has  listened  to  farmers,  mechanics,  and  all 
sorts  of  practical  men,  each  attempting  to  disprove 
the  conclusions  of  another  by  appealing  to  his  own 
experience,  is  forced  to  think  that  in  some  cases 
experience  serves  little  else  than  to  entrench  a  person 
more  firmly  in  error.  Note  how  dubious  the  phy- 
sician looks  when  his  patient  claims  to  know  from 
experience  that  certain  things  are  good  or  bad  for 
him.  I  take  it,  however,  that  most  of  those  whom 
I  am  addressing  would  rather  rely  upon  the  evidence 
of  the  practical  than  the  theoretical  man.  We  take 
a  good  deal  of  satisfaction  in  the  fact  that  Galileo 
settles  by  observation  and  experiment  many  ques- 
tions which  had  been  mooted  for  two  thousand  years* 
after  the  fashion  of  the  dialectics  of  Plato  and  Aris- 

1  Abstract  of  address  delivered  before  the  Eastern  Association  of 
Chemistry  Teachers,  Boston,  May  11,  1912. 

173 


174  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

totle.  And  I  suppose  that  most  of  us  have  a  notion 
that  we  are  teaching  the  future  citizen  the  art  of 
learning  something  reliable  from  his  experience. 
We  cannot  hope  that  the  few  facts  learned  in  school 
will  suffice  for  life,  and  so  we  aim  to  prepare  the 
student  to  gather  facts  from  his  experience  through- 
out life,  and  we  like  to  think  that  the  difference 
between  the  schooled  and  the  unschooled  person  is 
that  the  former  will  be  able  to  give  more  reliable 
testimony  from  his  experiences.  This  I  find  has 
been  the  aim  of  all  books  on  science  teaching  which 
have  been  written  in  the  last  century  and  a  half, 
and  this  is  the  professed  aim  of  every  one  of  us  to- 
day —  but  what  is  our  practice  ?  During  the 
third  of  a  century,  in  which  I  have  been  engaged  in 
teaching  and  observing  the  teaching  of  chemistry, 
there  has  been  a  constant  increase  in  the  attention 
given  to  chemical  theory  in  high-school  instruction 

—  a  greater  and  greater  refinement  of  chemical  defi- 
nitions and  doctrine  and  a  proportional  decrease  in 
the  tendency  to  lead  pupils  to  derive  their  knowledge 
from  the  experiences  of  life.     The  introduction  of 
individual  laboratory  work  on  the  part  of  the  pupils 
has  even  accentuated  this  tendency  rather  than  coun- 
teracted it.     Laboratory  experiments  are  performed 
with  apparatus  which  suggests  nothing  found  any- 
where outside  the  laboratory  and  for  purposes  which 
obtain  nowhere  else.     Meanwhile,  the  refinements 
of   chemical    doctrine    which    are    supposed    to    be 
fundamental  remind  one  of  the  Church  Catechism 

—  and  one  of  these  codes  has  about  as  much  re- 
lation  to   life's  problems   as   the   other,     A   great 


LEARNING  FROM  EXPERIENCE          175 

American  teacher,  Professor  J.  P.  Cooke,  once  said 
to  a  group  of  teachers,  gathered  at  the  Harvard 
Summer  School : 

"  It  is  not  only  useless  but  injurious  in  the  education  of 
young  minds  to  present  any  department  of  physical  science  as 
a  body  of  definitions,  principles,  laws,  or  theories.  Such  facts 
only  should  be  taught  as  can  be  verified  either  by  experience 
of  the  pupils  or  by  the  simplest  experiments." 

The  commissioner  of  education  in  this  state  (Massa- 
chusetts) has  said : l 

"All  education  seems  to  inherit  a  fundamental  tendency 
toward  the  abstract,  the  relatively  unreal,  the  bookish.  The 
teaching  of  science  has  done  something  to  correct  this,  but  even 
here  there  seems  to  be  a  persistent  disposition  to  wander  out  of 
the  sunlight." 

There  is  a  rather  strenuous  attempt  in  some  quar- 
ters to  teach  what  is  called  applications  in  chemistry. 
I  note  how  this  association  and  the  New  York 
Chemistry  Teachers'  Club  and  other  such  organi- 
zations of  chemistry  teachers  devote  most  of  their 
meetings  to  excursions  to  chemical  factories  and  the 
like,  presumably  in  search  of  applications  of  chemical 
principles  with  which  to  enrich  their  teachings.  I 
think,  however,  that  many  teachers  have  gone  only 
so  far  as  to  use  these  applications  to  give  concrete- 
ness  to  their  teaching  of  principles  —  somewhat  as 
a  dictionary  defines  words  and  quotes  phrases  to 
show  their  application.  Some  teachers  think  that 
school  and  college  are  the  places  to  teach  funda- 
mental principles  only,  leaving  the  applications  to 

1  Educational  Review,  Vol.  39,  p.  13. 


176  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

be  found  by  the  pupil,  if  he  needs,  in  after-life. 
And  some  scorn  practical  applications  as  savoring  of 
vocation  or  trade.  But  those  who  test  students  in 
after-life  know  that  the  graduates  from  such  instruc- 
tion carry  with  them  little  understanding  of  either 
applications  or  principles.  Some  few  teachers  take 
the  stand  that  the  applications  must  be  taught 
from  the  first  for  the  sake  of  making  the  principles 
understandable,  but  with  all  of  these  classes  the  end 
in  view  is  "grounding  the  student  in  chemical 
doctrine."  Now  I  contend  that  a  knowledge  of 
chemical  theory  is  of  secondary  importance  to  the 
vast  majority  of  high-school  pupils,  but  that  a 
scientific  study  of  their  daily  experiences  is  of  the 
greatest  importance  to  all  students.  I  might  fur- 
ther claim  that  if  one  is  seeking  a  knowledge  of 
chemical  theory  he  will  reach  that  end  most  surely 
by  inverting  the  usual  order  of  procedure.  I  hear 
some  one  saying,  "You  cannot  teach  application 
until  you  have  first  taught  principles,"  and  I  reply, 
"You  cannot  teach  principles  until  after  you  have 
taught  applications  —  very  many  applications." 
The  high-school  course  might  well  be  little  else  than 
application  with  a  very  incidental  reference  to 
principles.  It  should  be  a  sort  of  organization  of 
experiences,  letting  one  throw  light  upon  another 
according  to  Huxley's  idea  that  science  is  merely 
organized  common  sense.  Twenty  years  ago  I 
wrote  a  book  on  this  plan,  but  I  had  at  that  time 
an  exaggerated  idea  of  the  availability  of  the  in- 
ductive method  for  the  instruction  of  the  young. 
I  now  believe  in  giving  large  doses  of  information. 


LEARNING  FROM  EXPERIENCE          177 

We  need  not,  I  think,  fear  the  "talking  teacher." 
All  great  teachers  have  been  conspicuous  for  that 
gift,  and  it  is  noticeable  that  they  all  have  bristled 
with  information  which  they  had  a  passion  for 
imparting  to  others.  Their  pupils  learned  to  think 
in  orderly  fashion  apparently  by  imitating  their 
teacher.  It  is  a  powerful  incentive  to  scientific 
thinking  to  have  a  master,  whom  you  fully  trust, 
lead  you  through  the  interpretation  of  your  own 
experiences.  Our  experiences  and  our  observations 
upon  nature  are  not  naturally  differentiated  under 
such  headings  as  chemistry,  physics,  physiology, 
botany,  etc.  If  we  label  them  anything  we  may 
use  the  term  general  science.  It  is  science  if  it  is 
organized  common  sense.  By  a  strange  inversion  of 
ideas  the  college  preparatory  course  in  chemical 
doctrine  has  been  called  science.  It  seems  to  me 
to  bear  a  similar  relation  to  science  that  gram- 
mar does  to  literature  and  modern  students  go 
far  in  literature  before  touching  grammar  and  they 
never  study  grammar  much. 

Let  me  illustrate  my  meaning  by  outlining  some 
topics  of  instruction. 

In  front  of  a  certain  building  there  is  an  iron  fence, 
very  rusty,  showing  that  some  chemical  action  has 
been  going  on.  There  is  another  near  by  which  has 
been  carefully  attended  to,  scraped,  and  painted, 
in  order  that  this  chemical  action  should  not  go  on. 
We  are  at  great  pains,  most  of  us,  to  see  that  this 
action  does  not  take  place  with  our  iron  things. 
Many  of  our  iron  goods  are  covered  with  tin,  zinc, 
or  nickel  to  prevent  this  action.  We  cover  them  with 


178  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

vaseline.  We  oil  them.  We  use  agate  iron,  or 
enameled  iron.  Concrete  covers  iron  in  our  modern 
buildings.  It  is  so  hard  to  protect  iron  from  this 
destruction  that  we  do  not  expect  to  find  pure  iron 
in  nature.  If  we  want  a  pure  specimen  in  a  museum, 
we  keep  it  free  from  the  action  of  the  air  and  free 
from  contact  with  moisture.  We  have  noticed  that 
when  iron  is  brought  out  of  the  blacksmith's  furnace 
it  has  undergone  this  action  much  more  abundantly ; 
it  is  coated  thickly  with  this  rust.  We  have  noticed 
in  our  experience  that  it  will  not  do  to  let  water 
stand  in  tin  basins ;  we  find  a  yellow  spot  where  the 
water  has  begun  to  attack  the  iron  through  the  tin. 
A  hardware  storekeeper  will  bring  out  his  best 
cutlery,  carefully  protected  from  this  chemical 
action,  probably  wrapped  in  something  that  will 
keep  it  dry  and  protect  it  from  the  action  of  the 
air.  Nails  which  are  left  exposed  to  the  weather 
go  through  this  process,  and  they  grow  larger,  a 
crust  forms  upon  them,  and  they  actually  increase 
in  weight. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  anybody  will  imagine  that 
I  condemn  the  teaching  of  chemical  theory  in  its 
proper  place.  I  am  not  urging  that  you  follow  the 
pace  of  the  pupil,  or  even  his  interests.  However, 
your  students  should  draw  from  you  the  explanation 
and  theory  rather  than  for  you  to  be  forcing  it  upon 
them  in  the  wrong  place.  I  am  contending  that  you 
do  now  put  the  chemical  theory  in  the  wrong  place 
and  furnish  too  much  of  it.  Your  pupils  will  want  to 
know  the  explanation  of  this  action,  and  you  should 
tell  the  story  of  the  modern  idea  of  oxidation  in  a 


LEARNING  FROM  EXPERIENCE          179 

very  brief  and  incidental  way,  and  it  should  come 
up  in  many  different  connections  if  you  would  have 
it  well  understood. 

Iron  is  not  the  only  metal  that  corrodes.  We 
have  no  end  of  trouble  to  keep  our  silver  and  brass 
from  tarnishing.  We  protect  them  by  covering 
with  some  metal  which  is  less  likely  to  tarnish.  Your 
students  will  ask,  why  do  silver  spoons  tarnish  so 
rapidly  in  hard-cooked  eggs  ?  Why  does  a  dime 
that  is  kept  in  a  pocket  with  a  rubber  eraser  tarnish  ? 
Metals  do  tarnish;  what  are  they  given  to  uniting 
with?  Look  through  a  mineral  cabinet  and  see 
what  sort  of  compounds  of  the  metal  there  are. 

Heat  seems  to  aid  in  this  action,  and  heat  carried 
to  a  much  higher  degree  arrests  the  action.  And  so 
we  can  easily  imagine  the  conditions  of  things  out- 
side of  our  experience.  What  about  the  conditions 
in  the  atmosphere  of  the  sun?  We  know  some- 
thing about  the  chemistry  of  the  sun,  almost  as 
much  as  about  the  chemistry  of  our  own  surround- 
ings. We  have  thus  far  noticed  two  influences  which 
induce  chemical  change  —  heat  and  moisture.  See 
how  we  make  use  of  the  first  influence  in  the  labora- 
tory; nearly  all  our  work  depends  upon  the  use  of 
the  Bunsen  burner.  There  are  very  few  experiments 
that  do  not  require  heat  of  some  sort  to  produce  the 
change  desired.  We  cannot  observe  cooking  pro- 
cesses very  much  without  noticing  that  time  as 
well  as  temperature  is  an  important  consideration. 
Why  are  we  so  interested  in  the  fireless  cooker? 
Largely  because  it  brings  in  the  question  of  time. 

I  remember  how,  when  I  first  became  a  teacher, 


180  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

I  tried  to  bring  out  from  the  experiences  of  the 
country  boy  a  series  of  lessons.  We  were  burning 
a  piece  of  paper  and  dropped  it  on  the  stove.  It 
changed  to  a  black  substance,  and  a  few  drops  of 
a  thick  liquid  remained  on  the  stove,  smearing  it. 
And  I  tried  to  make  it  clear  by  giving  a  multitude 
of  other  experiences.  I  will  give  you  just  an  outline 
of  this.  I  had  been  burning  some  waste  paper  in 
the  furnace.  When  I  opened  the  door  of  the  fur- 
nace, drops  of  a  thick  liquid  fell  down  from  the 
inside  of  the  door  upon  the  paved  cellar  bottom. 
In  that  town  I  went  to  a  'country  church  which 
was  heated  by  a  stove,  with  a  long  pipe  running  the 
whole  length  of  the  building  to  a  chimney.  There 
were  places  where  the  stovepipe  gapped,  and 
oftentimes  you  could  see  drops  of  this  liquid  come 
out.  Of  course  it  was  generally  thought  that  it 
was  water  from  outside  that  had  come  down  the 
chimney.  And  then  there  was  the  smokehouse, 
where  the  same  thing  was  going  on  over  and  over 
again,  smearing  the  walls  of  the  smokehouse.  And 
then  there  were  the  chimney  fires.  Why  should  a 
pile  of  brick  get  on  fire  once  in  a  while?  I  found 
that  the  inside  walls  were  smeared  with  a  liquid, 
and  other  things  that  came  from  the  destructive 
distillation  of  what  was  being  burned  in  the  stove. 
Then  there  was  the  gas  factory ;  because  those  were 
the  days  when  they  were  throwing  away  the  waste 
products.  And  when  the  long  and  interesting  story 
of  the  coal-tar  products  came  out  they  created  tre- 
mendous interest  in  my  class  in  chemistry.  And 
then  there  was  the  candle,  and  that  most  interesting 


LEARNING  FROM  EXPERIENCE          181 

book,  The  Chemical  History  of  a  Candle,  written 
by  Faraday.  He  said  in  his  introduction  that  in 
sitting  down  to  watch  that  candle  he  saw  every  law 
of  the  physical  universe  illustrated.  And  then  came 
the  wonderful  series  of  petroleum  products. 

Now  heat  breaks  down  chemical  compounds,  and 
it  stimulates  chemical  action  most  interestingly  in 
the  springtime.  What  goes  on  in  nature  in  the 
spring  months  ?  Why,  there  are  two  things :  the 
rise  in  temperature  and  the  increase  in  moisture. 
Where  we  have  the  two  things  together  we  get 
the  tropical  heat  of  summer,  and  we  are  not  able  to 
get  along  without  using  ice,  because  nature  gives 
us  the  conditions  which .  stir  up  all  sorts  of  chemical 
change. 

But  there  is  something  else  that  comes  from  our 
observation  regarding  this ;  it  is  the  reverse  that 
chemical  action  is  all  the  time  tending  to  raise  the 
temperature.  I  engaged  a  man  to  bring  me  some 
manure,  which  I  intended  to  use  on  the  lawn.  It 
was  dumped  down  in  a  heap  and  left  there  for  a  few 
days.  One  day  when  I  was  out  walking  with  my 
son,  we  passed  the  pile  of  manure.  He  stopped 
me  and  remarked  that  the  pile  was  steaming  as 
though  there  was  a  fire  in  it.  Well,  of  course,  I 
had  to  give  him  a  lesson  in  chemistry,  though  he 
was  only  eight  years  old.  But  he  was  just  as  ready 
to  hear  that  then  as  he  will  be  in  the  third  year  of 
high  school.  Later  in  the  season,  we  mowed  the 
lawn,  and  raked  the  grass  into  a  pile,  and  then  we 
were  negligent  about  removing  it.  My  son,  while 
playing  on  the  lawn,  put  his  foot  into  the  pile  of 


182  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

hay.  It  was  very  hot;  the  chemical  action  that 
was  going  on  produced  heat. 

All  along  the  street  the  plasterers  are  adding  cold 
water  to  cold  lime,  making  a  mortar,  and  the  whole 
gets  steaming  hot,  and  it  is  just  sickening  to  see 
school  children  going  by  without  seeing  it.  The 
trouble  is  they  are  tired  of  being  snubbed  for  trying 
to  learn  from  their  experiences.  What  are  all  these 
regulations  about  disposing  of  painters'  rags,  etc.  ? 
They  will  produce  heat  and  spontaneous  combustion 
it  is  feared.  To  avoid  such  fires  we  are  told  that  we 
must  guard  against  heat  and  moisture. 

But  this  thing  is  going  on  in  our  own  bodies. 
Animal  heat  is  simply  due  to  chemical  changes  like 
the  heat  in  the  grass  pile,  and  we  succeed  in  keeping 
a  very  interesting  balance  between  the  cold  of 
winter  and  the  intense  heat  of  summer.  We  go  into 
a  cold  room  and  creep  into  so-called  "warm" 
blankets,  although  they  are  not  any  warmer  than 
the  room  itself.  We  simply  make  the  blankets 
warm  by  the  heat  of  the  body.  Vegetable  life 
goes  through  the  same  process.  We  have,  therefore, 
a  tremendously  interesting  chemical  action  going  on 
in  all  sorts  of  plant  organisms.  So  we  are  not 
surprised  to  find  the  sign,  "Keep  in  a  cool,  dry 
place,"  upon  packages  of  various  things. 

Then  there  is  another  thing  that  comes  to  a  pupil 
from  his  experiences.  That  is  that  light  is  also  an 
agent  in  the  bringing  about  of  chemical  changes ;  as, 
for  instance,  in  photography.  I  took  up  photography 
before  there  was  any  such  thing  as  the  dry  plate,  or 
the  kodak  films,  or  instantaneous  exposure.  I  re- 


LEARNING  FROM  EXPERIENCE          183 

member  how  I  would  go  out  three  hours  after  sunrise 
and  make  an  exposure  for  a  certain  length  of  time, 
to  get  a  picture,  and  then  go  out  in  the  afternoon 
three  hours  before  sunset,  and  it  would  be  necessary 
to  expose  the  film  about  three  times  as  long  as  before 
in  order  to  get  the  same  result,  when  no  one  could 
discover  by  any  observation  of  the  eye  that  the 
day  was  less  bright.  This  set  a  whole  train  of 
thoughts  going ;  and  it  was  not  long  after  this  that 
I  heard  of  the  wonderful  flowers  in  Norway,  and  the 
short  season  for  growing  wheat  in  Siberia,  which  is 
explained  by  the  fact  that  the  very  intense  light  is 
able  to  make  up  for  the  short  season  of  high  tem- 
perature. Then  there  were  the  sprouts  growing 
upon  potatoes  in  the  cellar,  and  when  you  get  them 
out  in  the  sun  they  become  green,  because  the  chloro- 
phyll in  the  plant  is  developed  by  the  sun.  Then 
there  was  the  strange  action  upon  our  skins  in  the 
summer  time  that  makes  the  skin  tan ;  and  the  fading 
of  fabrics  which  we  exposed  to  the  light,  and  of  the  wall 
paper  except  where  pictures  have  hung.  I  recollect 
one  summer  we  hung  some  pictures  on  the  bare  walls 
of  a  camp.  Next  summer  we  wanted  to  change  the 
decorations  and  so  took  down  the  pictures.  The 
spots  showed  very  clearly  where  the  raw  spruce 
boards  had  not  been  exposed  to  the  light,  while 
the  rest  had  grown  very  yellow.  I  remember  a 
blue  serge  suit.  After  a  few  weeks'  wear  I  had  occa- 
sion to  turn  up  the  collar  of  the  coat,  and  there  was 
the  original  color  under  the  collar,  while  the  rest 
of  the  coat  was  entirely  different.  When  my 
sister  took  down  her  hair,  it  showed  the  places 


184  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

where  it  had  faded  because  of   the  action   of   the 
light  upon  it. 

It  is  my  belief  that  there  is  little  in  the  whole 
field  of  science  which  you  can  teach  to  these  young 
pupils  except  through  the  channels  of  their  ex- 
periences. 


XI 

PRACTICAL  CHEMISTRY1 

THERE  are  about  1000  teachers  of  chemistry  in  the 
secondary  schools  of  this  state  (New  York),  but 
probably  less  than  50  of  these  are  teachers  of 
chemistry  exclusively. 

For  purposes  of  investigation  we  have  divided  the 
high  schools  of  the  state  into  three  classes : 

Class  1.  —  Schools  having  teachers  of  physical 
science,  biology,  earth  science,  etc.  (Departments 
which  are  represented  by  the  various  sections  A, 
B,  C,  of  this  Association.) 

Class  2.  —  Schools  having  teachers  of  science. 

Class  3.  —  Schools  having  (just)  teachers. 

Class  1  includes  7  per  cent  of  the  high  schools  of 
this  state. 

Class  2  includes  10  per  cent  of  the  high  schools  of 
this  state. 

Class  3  includes  83  per  cent  of  the  high  schools  of 
this  state. 

This  association  was  formed  in  1895  by  certain 
members  of  Class  1  and  has  been  sustained  during 
these  17  years  by  members  of  that  class.  More 

1  Read  before  the  New  York  State  Science  Teachers'  Association 
at  Syracuse,  December  27,  1912. 

185 


186  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

than  one-third  of  the  members  of  Class  1  are  in 
New  York  City.  Those  persons  formed  15  years 
ago  local  associations  such  as  The  New  York  Physics 
Teachers'  Club,  The  New  York  Chemistry  Teachers' 
Club,  The  New  York  Biology  Teachers'  Club,  etc. 
There  are  several  other  centers  in  the  state  where 
the  same  thing  has  happened.  These  study  local 
problems  and  local  industries  for  the  purpose  of 
making  the  instruction  in  the  schools  more  practical. 
A  good  many  of  the  schools  which  belong  to  Class  1 
throughout  the  state  have  for  one  reason  or  another 
never  been  represented  in  this  association.  It  there- 
fore happens  that  this  association  with  the  all-in- 
clusive name  of  "The  New  York  State  Science 
Teachers'  Association"  represents  only  two  or 
three  per  cent  of  the  schools  of  the  state. 

Our  aim  has  been  to  find  out  how  instruction  in 
chemistry  in  the  schools  throughout  the  state  might 
be  made  more  practical  —  more  vitally  connected 
with  life  —  more  of  an  interpretation  of  the  experi- 
ences of  the  pupils.  We  find  that  during  the  last 
17  years  the  tendency  has  been  to  make  high-school 
chemistry  a  very  complex  system  of  doctrine  with 
little  attempt  to  give  it  local  application. 

Class  1  above  referred  to,  working  under  the  im- 
mediate influence  of  the  colleges,  has  been  largely 
responsible  for  the  present  prescription  in  high- 
school  chemistry  for  New  York  State. 

The  members  of  Classes  2  and  3,  although  con- 
stituting more  than  nine-tenths  of  the  schools  of 
the  state,  have  had  practically  no  voice  in  the 
matter  of  this  prescription.  Perhaps  a  majority  of 


PRACTICAL  CHEMISTRY  187 

the  teachers  of  chemistry  in  the  state  are  principals 
of  schools.  They  do  not,  as  a  rule,  attend  the  meet- 
ings of  this  association.  Their  own  association  has 
met  annually  in  Syracuse  at  this  season  for  28  years. 

The  most  obvious  distinction  which  one  might 
make  between  Class  1  on  the  one  hand  and  Classes 
2  and  3  on  the  other  is  that  a  large  number  of  the 
members  of  Class  1  are  fresh  from  college  and  teach 
what  they  have  been  taught  in  the  way  they  were 
taught  it.  They  specialized  in  chemistry  in  col- 
lege. They  specialize  in  chemistry  in  high-school 
instruction.  Their  knowledge  of  other  subjects  is 
exiguous.  Their  experiences  in  life  are  too  limited 
for  them  to  meet  high-school  pupils  upon  their  own 
ground.  They  are  said  to  teach  chemistry  rather 
than  pupils.  In  Classes  2  and  3  there  appear  to  be 
a  larger  proportion  of  persons  who  understand  their 
pupils  and  who  know  how  to  make  chemistry  mean 
something  to  them.  Such  have  in  many  cases 
risen  to  principalships  because  of  their  wider  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature.  They  are,  in  short,  bigger 
men  and  women  than  specialists  can  be.  They  live 
in  the  smaller  cities  and  towns  and  have  fewer 
pupils  to  deal  with.  They  have  more  direct  con- 
tact with  nature,  with  their  pupils,  and  with  their 
pupils'  homes.  They  are  the  persons  who  are 
making  chemistry  or  any  other  subject  which  they 
may  teach  vital. 

Our  statistics  show  that  members  of  Class  1  dwell 
on  the  average  in  cities  of  112,000  inhabitants  and 
teach  in  high  schools  of  1200  pupils,  having  37  teach- 
ers to  the  school,  each  confining  his  attention  to 


188  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

one  subject.  Members  of  Class  2  dwell  on  the  aver- 
age in  cities  of  15,000  inhabitants  and  teach  in  high 
schools  of  165  pupils  with  7  teachers  to  the  school, 
each  giving  instruction  in  a  group  of  allied  subjects. 
Members  of  Class  3  dwell  on  the  average  in  towns 
of  6360  inhabitants  and  teach  in  schools  of  70 
pupils  with  4  teachers  to  the  school,  each  teaching 
pupils  in  groups  of  half  a  dozen  with  that  personal 
contact  which  is  the  chief  factor  in  all  good  in- 
struction. 

I  have  visited  many  schools.  In  a  typical  case  of 
the  3d  class  I  found  a  town  of  5000,  a  high  school 
of  60  pupils  and  3  teachers.  The  chemistry  was 
taught  by  the  principal.  He  is  a  leader  in  the  life 
of  that  community.  He  has  a  house,  a  garden,  and 
a  family.  There  is  plenty  of  chemistry  in  his  life. 
It  gets  into  the  school  and  enriches  the  lives  of  the 
pupils.  I  turn  from  this  to  a  case  in  the  1st  class, 
of  whom  there  are  some  —  a  city  of  100,000  inhab- 
itants, a  high  school  of  1000  pupils  and  35  teachers. 
An  instructor  who  conceived  the  idea  while  in 
college  that  chemistry  was  his  forte.  He  says  he 
majored  in  chemistry.  Under  the  guidance  of  his 
college  adviser  he  took  everything  possible  in 
chemistry  and  as  little  as  possible  in  other  subjects. 
The  longer  he  stayed  in  college  the  fewer  things  he 
knew.  He  is  now  instructor  in  chemistry  to  35  pu- 
pils in  a  school  of  1000.  He  has  no  garden  to  till. 
He  lives  in  a  hall  bedroom  and  the  students  believe 
that  contact  with  him  is  belittling. 

1.  The  statistics  presented  above  raise  the  question 
whether  after  all  general  science,  now  being  so  widely 


PRACTICAL  CHEMISTRY  189 

introduced    throughout    the   country,  is  not    more 
practical  than  chemistry  and  physics. 

2.  The   discussions   now   going   on   all   over   the 
country  raise  the  question  whether  boys  and  girls 
must  be  segregated  in  order  that  the  teaching  of 
chemistry  may  be  practical. 

The  United  States  Commissioner's  Report  gives 
only  6  high  schools  in  New  York  State  for  boys  alone 
and  only  3  for  girls  alone,  while  there  are  866  for  both 
sexes.  In  the  whole  United  States  there  are  only  35 
for  boys  alone  and  27  for  girls  alone  but  12,151  for 
coeducation.  Nine-tenths  of  the  high  schools  are 
too  small  to  make  segregation  possible  and  in  the 
large  ones  the  complexity  of  the  program  with  all 
its  electives  makes  it  rarely  possible  to  separate  boys 
and  girls  in  classes.  Girls  are  present  in  all  our 
classes  and  they  predominate.  They  constitute 
55  per  cent  of  all  our  high-school  pupils.  Who  thinks 
that  the  man  who  holds  down  a  chair  in  some  business 
office  has  more  contact  with  problems  of  physical 
science  than  his  wife  with  all  her  modern  household 
appliances?  Perhaps  this  talk  about  segregation  is 
an  academic  discussion. 

3.  The    question    of    men    teachers    vs.    women 
teachers  for  chemistry  or  physics. 

Women  constitute  62  per  cent  of  all  high-school 
teachers.  We  desire  to  find  out  whether  they  are  in 
the  majority  as  chemistry  teachers,  and  whether  they 
are  considered  quite  as  satisfactory  as  men  in  such 
positions.  The  average  salary  for  a  high-school 
teacher  in  this  state  is  now  $1100.  It  was  $665 
seventeen  years  ago  when  this  association  was  born. 


190  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

4.  Should  science  be  made  practical  in  the  same 
way  that  English  has  been  of  late  years  in  the 
schools  ? 

Some  of  us  can  remember  when  English  was 
the  weakest  subject  in  the  schools.  Here  are  some 
statistics  to  show  that  it  is  now  the  strongest.  I 
found  that  in  one  school  library  during  a  period  of 
two  months  993  readers  appeared  in  pursuit  of  their 
work  in  English;  722  came  for  information  in  his- 
tory, but  only  40  read  because  of  their  interest  in 
science.  There  were  in  the  library  3915  volumes,  but 
only  71  of  these  pertained  to  physical  science  and 
two-thirds  of  these  were  the  numerous  text-books 
contributed  by  publishers. 

5.  Here  is  a  group  of  statistics  which  raise  the 
question  whether  teachers  are  practical. 

In  New  York  State  48  per  cent  of  high-school 
pupils  are  in  the  first-year  class.  We  manage  to  elimi- 
nate more  than  one-third  of  these  so  that  26  per  cent 
appear  in  the  second-year  class .  More  than  one-third 
of  these  disappear,  so  that  16  per  cent  are  found 
in  the  third-year  class.  More  than  one-third  of 
these  fail  to  reach  their  senior  year  and  10  per  cent 
are  found  in  the  fourth-year  class.  A  quarter  of 
these  are  not  allowed  to  graduate,  and  8  per  cent 
is  the  number  of  those  who  succeed.  Half  of  these 
(four  per  cent)  through  "toil  and  trouble  and  tears" 
have  prepared  for  college,  and  the  colleges  think 
they  are  doing  the  Lord's  service  by  rejecting  half 
of  these  so  that  2  per  cent  enter.  There  are  plenty 
of  people  who  raise  the  question  whether  these  are 
superior  or  inferior  to  those  who  have  dropped  out 


PRACTICAL  CHEMISTRY  191 

by  the  way.  These  figures  tabulated  present  the 
following  appearance : 

Of  high-school  pupils  in  New  York  State  there  are 
48  per  cent  in  Ist-year  class,  26  per  cent  in  2d-year 
class,  16  per  cent  in  3d-year  class,  10  per  cent  in 
4th-year  class,  8  per  cent  graduate,  4  per  cent  pre- 
pared for  college,  2  per  cent  admitted.  These 
statistics  do  not  differ  materially  from  those  shown 
by  the  United  States  Commissioner's  Report  for  the 
high  schools  of  the  whole  country. 

If  we  were  attempting  to  manage  any  other  busi- 
ness with  such  a  record  as  the  above,  the  question 
would  be  raised  whether  we  were  practical. 


XII 

GENERAL  SCIENCE 

IN  1912  the  National  Education  Association 
appointed  a  Committee  on  General  Science.  As 
chairman  of  this  committee  I  sent  out  the  following 
circular : 

All  persons  interested  are  invited  to  cooperate 
with  this  committee  in  finding  out  what  is  good 
material  to  present  and  what  are  good  methods  to 
use. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  we  gather  lists  of  ques- 
tions which  young  persons  ask  of  parents  and  teach- 
ers in  search  for  information  in  the  field  of  science 
such  as  :  What  is  the  sun  ?  How  does  it  keep  hot  ? 
Why  does  it  sometimes  turn  red?  What  gives 
the  clouds  so  many  different  colors  ?  What  makes 
the  street  car  run  ?  How  can  animals  breathe  when 
under  water?  Why  do  leaves  of  plants  turn  red 
in  autumn,  etc.  ? 

A  lawyer  testifies  that  in  his  profession  he  has  found 
of  great  value  the  general  science  course  which  he  took 
a  generation  ago  consisting  of  the  Geological  Story 
Briefly  Told  and  the  stories  of  half  a  dozen  other 
sciences  briefly  told.  Many  intelligent  men  have 
testified  that  what  they  need  particularly  is  general 
information  in  the  field  of  science.  It  has  been 

192 


GENERAL  SCIENCE  193 

suggested  that  teachers,  parents,  and  grown-up 
persons  in  general  send  to  the  Committee  lists  of 
facts  in  science  which  they  by  years  of  experience 
have  found  worth  while  to  know. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  lists  be  prepared  of 
the  incredible  things  persons  say  and  do  which  show 
the  need  for  instruction  in  general  science  and  show 
what  instruction  is  most  needed. 

Suggestions  for  organizing  common  sense,  develop- 
ing gumption,  etc.,  are  in  order.  Lists  of  problems 
are  suggested  in  the  field  of  natural  science  which 
require  diagnosis  at  the  hands  of  the  ordinary 
person.  In  this  age  of  machinery,  life  is  becoming 
increasingly  embarrassing  to  those  who  regard  all 
mechanisms  as  uncanny.  That  education  which 
its  devotees  are  pleased  to  call  the  humanities,  but 
which  seems  to  leave  its  disciples  incapable  of  serv- 
ing humanity,  is  becoming  daily  more  inadequate. 

Lists  of  aims  for  this  work  are  desired  as  also  lists 
of  sources  of  information.  Lists  of  fundamental 
principles  have  been  suggested.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  no  syllabus  be  prepared  of  work  expected 
of  all  schools  alike,  but  rather  let  it  be  urged  that 
each  teacher  should  adapt  his  work  to  local  condi- 
tions. It  has  been  suggested  that  any  good  work 
must  be  considered  good  preparation  for  the  follow- 
ing years  of  high  school  and  college.  Facts  which 
will  be  needed  in  the  future  years  of  any  course  at 
school  are  best  taught  when  they  are  needed  and 
when  they  are  to  be  organized  for  some  purpose. 
It  is  suggested  that  sample  lessons  be  published 
in  detail  to  guide  inexperienced  teachers  in  the  best 


194  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

method  of  presenting  topics  in  general  science. 
Several  courses  in  general  science  have  been  already 
published  indicating  the  progress  in  this  matter 
up  to  the  present  time. 

All  who  are  interested  in  this  matter  are  invited 
to  make  further  suggestions,  to  criticize  those  al- 
ready made,  and  especially  to  make  some  construc- 
tive contributions  which  will  in  each  case  be  cred- 
ited to  their  authors  in  the  published  reports  of  the 
Committee. 

The  returns  which  came  in  indicated  that  the 
schools  should  give  information  from  the  whole 
field  of  science  —  not  neglecting  astronomy.  The 
public  needs  unmistakably  require  a  new  organiza- 
tion of  science  instruction  according  to  projects. 
The  problems  of  life  are  not  differentiated  after 
the  manner  of  specialized  science.  Pupils  in  both 
elementary  and  high  schools  are  in  a  much  more 
primitive  state  of  mind  in  regard  to  all  science  than 
our  school  programs  would  indicate.  Many  are 
apparently  blind  and  deaf  to  nature's  most  evident 
teachings.  They  are  in  the  depths  of  superstition 
about  common  things  even  while  surcharged  with 
academic  formulas  regarding  things  scientific.  Our 
secondary  schools  persist  in  articulating  with  that 
which  is  above  them  rather  than  with  the  elementary 
school.  Few  persons  appear  to  know  that  they 
have  the  answers  to  most  of  their  questions  readily 
accessible  in  dictionaries,  encyclopedias,  and  read- 
able books.  Apparently  we  have  deprecated  the 
teaching  of  science  from  books  too  long  and  too 


GENERAL  SCIENCE  195 

successfully.  The  greatest  need,  and  likewise  the 
greatest  demand,  among  even  highly  educated  per- 
sons, is  for  information  rather  than  training  in  science. 
All  workers  and  students  require  training  in  their 
specialty,  but  in  other  fields  they  want  knowledge 
in  simple  form  and  by  the  most  direct  method. 

Natural  science  has  moved  from  a  position  of 
great  worth  as  a  school  subject  to  one  of  minor 
importance.  Science  teachers  everywhere  are  begin- 
ning to  regard  it  a  high  duty  to  bring  it  back  to  its 
rightful  place  and  value.  Attention  has  been  too 
sharply  focused  on  teaching  "subjects"  as  against 
teaching  students  those  things  that  are  important 
for  them  to  know.  The  schools  reached  the  low- 
est point  in  real  science  instruction  when,  under 
the  stress  of  preparing  for  higher  institutions,  they 
narrowed  their  work  to  "the  forty  quantitative 
experiments."  It  was  desultory,  scrappy,  unor- 
ganized, unscientific.  At  best  the  teaching  was 
confined  to  vocabularies  of  technical  words,  defini- 
tions of  scientific  terms,  statements  of  "fundamental 
principles,"  etc.  The  natural  and  effective  order 
is  not  principles  followed  by  applications,  but  the 
reverse.  From  a  multitude  of  experiences,  facts, 
and  observations,  arranged  so  as  to  illuminate  one 
another,  some  few  principles  may  be  derived,  if 
these  principles  can  be  shown  to  be  fundamental 
and  can  be  brought  into  immediate  use.  The  trouble 
with  most  of  the  so-called  "fundamental  principles" 
is  that  they  are  never  again  met  either  in  school 
or  life,  and  the  majority  even  of  enlightened  men 
get  on  very  well  without  having  ever  heard  of  them, 


196  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

or,  having  heard,  they  have  forgotten  them  because 
they  did  not  prove  to  be  fundamental  to  anything. 
A  principle  which  occurs,  or  is  likely  to  occur,  so 
often  that  one  cannot  forget  it,  is  fundamental  and 
few  others  need  be  considered.  Principles  are  not 
to  be  taught  merely  for  discipline  and  training,  nor 
for  use  only  in  a  remote  future. 

The  study  of  "projects"  in  science  will  necessitate 
the  breaking  down  of  boundary  fences  that  have 
been  erected  between  highly  specialized  sciences. 
General  science  should  be  adapted  to  local  condi- 
tions and  may  not  be  universalized.  Many  proj- 
ects elaborated  by  ingenious  and  skilled  teachers 
should  be  published  in  a  series  of  small  books  or 
pamphlets  for  the  use  of  pupils.  Teachers  may 
select  from  these  as  time,  place,  and  other  circum- 
stances require.  Enough  of  this  material  may  easily 
be  prepared  to  occupy  many  years  of  study  on  the 
part  of  pupils.  What  is  worth  while  to  know  from 
the  fields  of  astronomy,  botany,  chemistry,  geology, 
meteorology,  physics,  physiology,  zoology,  etc., 
may  be  thus  acquired. 


XIII 

SCIENCE  TEACHING  BY  PROJECTS1 

THERE  are  those  who  say  that  nothing  worthy 
to  be  called  science  may  be  taught  before  the  last 
three  years  of  the  high-school  course  —  the  Senior 
High  School.  They  say  that  real,  serious  science 
is  to  be  found  chiefly  in  the  college,  and  that  what 
is  permissible  in  the  senior  high  school  is  the  learn- 
ing of  "fundamental  principles"  preparatory  to 
college  science.  There  are,  however,  others  who 
say  that  children  from  12  to  15  years  of  age  come 
nearest  of  all  persons  to  using  the  method  of  the 
great  masters  of  science,  and  practice  the  most 
real  research. 

"  The  native  and  unspoiled  attitude  of  childhood,  marked  by 
ardent  curiosity,  fertile  imagination,  and  love  of  experimental 
inquiry,  is  near,  very  near,  to  the  attitude  of  the  scientific 
mind."  2 

Bacon  said: 

"We  must  become  as  little  children  in  order  to  enter  the 
kingdom  of  science." 

"  At  present,  the  notion  is  current  that  childhood  is  almost 
entirely  unreflective  —  a  period  of  mere  sensory,  motor,  and 

1  Abstract  of  addresses  delivered  at  the  Annual  Conference  of  High 
School  Teachers,  University  of  Illinois,  November  20,  1914,  and  at  the 
annual  meeting  of  New  York  State  Teachers'  Association,  Albany, 
November  24,  1914. 

*  Dr.  John  Dewey,  How  We  Think. 

197 


198  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

memory  development,  while  adolescence  suddenly  brings  the 
manifestation  of  thought  and  reason.  .  .  .  But  thinking  itself 
remains  just  what  it  has  been  all  the  time.  .  .  .  Only  by  mak- 
ing the  most  of  the  thought-factor,  already  active  in  the  ex- 
perience of  childhood,  is  there  any  promise  or  warrant  for  the 
emergence  of  superior  reflective  power  of  adolescence  or  at  any 
later  period." l 

Elsewhere  Dewey  says : 

"  It  is  not  our  function  to  teach  children  to  think  —  they  think 
quite  as  much  as  we  do.  It  may  be  our  privilege  to  guide  their 
thinking." 

We  are  told  that  the  high-school-college-prepara- 
tory course  in  physics,  for  instance,  with  its  200 
odd  topics,  is  serious  science,  that  it  is  highly  special- 
ized and  that  it  is  preparatory  to  still  more  serious 
science  hereafter.  My  opinion  is  that  it  is  a  dis- 
jointed skeleton  of  falsely  called  "fundamental 
principles";  that  it  is  not  science  and  does  not 
prepare  for  science;  that  it  is  not  specialized  at 
all  but  is  a  hodgepodge  of  stuff  never  met  by  intelli- 
gent people  in  real  life. 

Dr.  Coulter  in  his  address  on  what  the  university 
expects  of  the  secondary  schools  said : 

"The  average  college  preparation  presents  to  the  university 
the  most  narrow  and  unevenly  trained  material  that  can  be 
imagined."  2 

And  those  who  deal  with  graduate  students  say  the 
same  thing  about  the  college  work. 

Since  the  defects  in  high-school  teaching  are  due 
chiefly  to  the  fact  that  high-school  teachers  are 

1  Dr.  John  Dewey,  How  We  Think,  p.  65. 
*  School  Review,  Vol.  XVII,  p.  81. 


SCIENCE  TEACHING  BY  PROJECTS      199 

college  products  and  are  close  imitators  of  college 
methods  we  must  first  deal  with  the  colleges. 

"An  ever-present  question  in  an  institution  of  the  higher 
learning  is  how  to  interest  officers  of  instruction  in  the  subject 
of  education.  They  are  certain  to  be  interested,  each  in  his  own 
particular  branch  of  study,  but  too  few  of  them  are  interested 
in  education  itself.  The  consequence  is  that  the  teaching  of 
many  very  famous  men  is  distinctly  poor ;  sometimes  it  is  even 
worse.  This  results  in  part  from  the  breakdown  of  the  general 
educational  process  into  a  variety  of  highly  specialized  activities, 
and  in  part  from  the  carelessness  of  college  teachers  as  to  every- 
thing which  affects  a  student's  manners,  speech,  conduct,  and 
sense  of  proportion,  provided  only  he  gets  hold  of  certain  facts 
which  the  teacher  desires  to  communicate. 

"One  mistake  into  which  college  teachers  are  most  likely  to 
fall  is  that  of  confusing  the  logical  with  the  psychological  order 
in  the  presentation  of  facts.  The  really  good  teacher  knows  that 
the  logical  order  is  the  result  of  mature  reflection  and  close  an- 
alysis of  a  large  body  of  related  phenomena,  and  he  knows  too 
that  this  comes  late  in  the  history  of  intellectual  development. 
He  knows  also  that  the  psychological  order  —  the  true  order  for 
the  teacher  to  follow  —  is  the  one  which  is  fixed  by  the  intrinsic 
interest  and  practical  significance  of  the  phenomena  in  question. 
The  good  teacher  will  not  try  to  force  the  logical  order  of  facts 
or  phenomena  upon  the  immature  student.  He  will  present 
these  facts  or  phenomena  to  him  in  their  psychological  order 
and  so  give  him  the  material  with  which  to  understand,  when 
his  knowledge  is  sufficiently  complete,  the  logical  order  and  all 
that  it  means.  .  .  . 

"It  should  be  possible  for  an  advanced  student  specializing 
in  some  other  field  to  gain  a  general  knowledge  of  physical 
problems  and  processes  without  becoming  a  physicist;  or  a 
general  knowledge  of  chemical  problems  and  processes  without 
becoming  a  chemist;  or  a  general  knowledge  of  zoological 
problems  and  processes  without  becoming  a  zoologist;  or  a 
general  knowledge  of  mathematical  problems  and  processes 
without  becoming  a  mathematician.  The  reply  that  knowledge 


200  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

has  become  so  highly  specialized  that  no  one  can  be  found  to 
give  such  courses  of  instruction  is  the  saddest  confession  of  in- 
competence and  educational  failure  that  can  possibly  be  made. 
It  ought  not  to  be  made  except  under  cover  of  darkness."  l 

The  process  of  learning  in  school  should  not  differ 
from  that  out  of  school. 

"Adults  have  some  occupation  about  which  their  thinking 
is  organized.  Information  is  not  amassed  and  left  in  a  heap. 
Inferences  are  made  not  from  purely  speculative  motives  but 
because  they  bear  upon  some  of  life's  problems."  2 

Dr.  McMurry  states  the  case  convincingly  as  fol- 
lows : 

"Should  the  student  be  a  collector  of  facts  at  large,  endeavor- 
ing to  develop  an  interest  in  whatever  is  true,  simply  because 
it  is  true?  Should  he  be  unmindful  of  particular  problems? 
or  should  his  study  be  under  the  guidance  of  a  specific  purpose  ?" 

"Much  has  been  said  in  times  past  about  art  for  art's  sake, 
science  for  the  sake  of  science,  and  knowledge  for  the  sake  of 
knowledge,  but  these  are  vague  expressions  that  will  excite  little 
interest  so  long  as  the  worth  of  a  man  is  determined  by  what 
comes  out  of  him,  by  the  service  he  renders,  rather  than  by  what 
enters  in."  3 

"There  is  nothing  less  profitable  than  scholarship  for  the  mere 
sake  of  scholarship,  nor  anything  more  wearisome  in  the  attain- 
ment. But  the  moment  you  have  a  definite  aim,  attention  is 
quickened,  the  mother  of  memory,  and  all  that  you  acquire 
groups  and  arranges  itself  in  an  order  that  is  lucid,  because  every- 
where and  always  it  is  in  intelligent  relation  to  a  central  object 
of  constant  and  growing  interest."  4 

"If  students  regularly  occupy  a  portion  of  their  study  time  in 
thinking  out  live  questions  that  they  hope  to  have  answered  by 

1  Annual  Report,  November,  1914,  President  Butler,  Columbia  Uni- 
versity. 

2  How  We  Think,  p.  41.  «  gow  to  study,  pp.  16  and  198. 
*  How  to  Study,  p.  37,  ...  quoting  Lowell. 


SCIENCE  TEACHING  BY  PROJECTS      201 

their  further  study,  and  interesting  uses  that  they  intend  to  make 
of  their  knowledge,  they  are  equipping  themselves  with  active 
power  both  for  study  and  for  the  broader  work  of  life."  l 

"Indeed  the  reason  why  self -trained  men  so  often  surpass  men 
who  are  trained  by  others  in  the  effectiveness  and  success  of 
their  reading,  is  that  they  know  what  they  read  and  study,  and 
have  definite  aims  and  wishes  in  all  their  dealings  with  books." 2 

Some  are  accusing  General  Science  of  lacking 
organization  of  subject  matter.  But  when  rightly 
understood  it  will  be  found  that  the  whole  movement 
is  an  attempt  to  introduce  first  of  all  a  very  specific 
organization  where  none  now  exists,  and  secondly 
a  very  different  kind  of  organization  from  that 
hitherto  attempted.  This  lack  of  organization  which 
makes  the  school  below  a  sort  of  dumping  ground 
for  the  school  above  is  one  of  our  grievances.  If  the 
teacher  above  wants  to  use  the  slide  rule,  the  teacher 
below  must  teach  it.  If  he  wants  to  use  the  metric 
system,  the  teacher  below  must  teach  that.  If  the 
college  professor  wants  to  measure  gas  as  no  one 
else  on  earth  does  it,  the  high-school  teacher  must 
teach  that  process  even  though  it  crowds  out  a 
thousand  more  important  matters  judged  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  pupils'  needs.  These  pupils  are 
going  to  buy  and  sell  gas  all  their  lives.  But  any- 
thing done  in  school  to  teach  them  to  do  that  in- 
telligently is  decried  by  some  as  savoring  of  the 
practical. 

Very  little  of  this  knowledge  which  the  high- 
school  pupils  spend  so  much  time  to  acquire,  is 

1  How  to  Study,  p.  39. 

2  How  to  Study,  p.  33,  ...  quoting  Porter. 


202  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE! 

possessed  by  any  intelligent  group  of  persons.  But 
for  the  high-school  pupils  it  ranks  as  "fundamental 
principles"  preparatory  to  "serious  science." 

"The  greatest  problem  that  the  schools  are  facing  is  the  lack 
of  intimate  relationship  between  the  work  of  the  schools  and  the 
work  of  the  world.  School  work  needs  to  be  real  instead  of 
artificial.  When  pupils  are  learning  something  real  that  has  an 
object  behind  and  a  result  to  come,  they  are  energetic,  when  they 
listen  to  or  watch  or  read  something  that  is  to  them  artificial, 
they  are  apathetic.  In  all  of  these  characteristics  the  children  in 
our  schools  closely  resemble  us  adults." 

"The  most  serious  defect  of  the  present  course  of  study,  is 
that  it  makes  thousands  of  children  waste  tens  of  thousands  of 
precious  hours  in  the  laborious  acquisition  of  facts  for  which 
they  will  never  have  any  practical  use.  The  material  which  the 
children  in  the  schools  are  daily  learning  is  of  a  sort  that  is 
seldom  or  never  met  with  in  the  business  of  even  the  most  suc- 
cessful men  engaged  in  commercial  and  professional  pursuits."  l 

Eleven  prominent  men  of  Springfield,  111.  —  a 
state  senator,  a  lieutenant  governor,  a  banker,  a 
physician,  a  lawyer,  a  clergyman,  a  merchant, 
the  president  of  a  manufacturing  company,  a  super- 
intendent of  parks,  an  efficiency  engineer,  and  a  news- 
paper editor  —  allowed  themselves  to  be  examined 
on  the  spelling,  the  geography,  the  arithmetic,  and 
the  history  taught  to  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh 
grades  of  the  schools  of  that  city.  Not  one  of  them 
could  make  a  passing  mark  in  any  of  these  subjects, 
as  taught  to  the  little  children  of  ten  to  twelve  years 
of  age.  Does  any  one  think  that  these  men,  or  any 
other  group  of  intelligent  citizens,  would  succeed  any 

1  See  Educational  Survey  of  the  Public  Schools  of  Springfield,  111., 
by  Leonard  P.  Ayres,  Ph.D.,  Division  of  Education,  Russell  Sage 
Foundation,  New  York  City. 


SCIENCE  TEACHING  BY  PROJECTS      203 

better  with  the  so-called  fundamental  principles  of 
high-school  science  ? 

The  movement  for  general  science  is  first  of  all 
a  protest  against  the  present  regime  of  unorganized 
subject  matter.  We  propose  general  science  as  an 
antidote  for  that  which  now  is  too  general  to  be 
called  science,  either  serious  or  flippant.  The  move- 
ment for  general  science  is,  in  the  second  place,  an 
attempt,  for  purposes  of  instruction,  to  introduce 
a  "psychological  organization,"  as  Dr.  Dewey  puts 
it; 1  or  a  "genetic  organization,"  as  President  Hall 
states  the  case : 

"The  chief  among  many  reasons  why  all  branches  of  science 
are  so  disappointing  to  their  promoters  in  high  school  and  college 
is,  that  in  the  exact  logical,  technical  way  they  are  taught,  they 
violate  the  basal  law  of  psychic  growth,  ignore  the  deep  springs  of 
natural  interest  and  attempt  to  force  a  precocity  against  which 
the  instincts  of  the  young,  so  much  wiser  and  truer  and  older 
than  their  consciousness,  happily  revolt."  2 

Organization  of  subject  matter  must  be  made 
around  the  knowledge  of  the  pupil,  not  around  that 
of  the  teacher  or  syllabus  maker.  We  have  to  build 
on  the  instincts  and  experiences  of  the  individual, 
otherwise  we  are  hanging  our  building  on  a  hypo- 
thetical foundation  in  mid-air. 

The  real  way  to  learn  fundamental  principles  is 
to  attack  those  problems  of  which  life  is  full  for 
each  individual,  not  through  the  preparatory  fallacy 
called  the  scientific  method,  but  by  a  "  forked  road 
situation."  The  school  should  prepare  pupils  to 

1  See,  How  We  Think,  Chapter  V. 

2  Adolescence,  Vol.  II,  Chapter  XII. 


204  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

walk  alone  by  attacking  real  problems  as  Archi- 
medes, Galileo,  Davy,  Faraday,  Pasteur,  Tyndall, 
and  all  the  rest  did.  Most  of  us  know,  if  we  would 
think  back  over  our  experiences,  that  we  never 
really  learn  these  so-called  fundamental  principles 
until  they  come  to  us  as  an  interpretation  of  some 
of  our  life's  problems.  Our  teaching  bears  so  little 
fruit  because  we  are  attempting  what  in  the  nature 
of  the  case  can  never  succeed.  We  know  that  we 
are  not  learning  things  that  way  now,  never  have 
learned  things  that  way,  never  can.  We  prescribe 
that  sort  of  "serious  science"  for  the  defenseless, 
and  when  their  unerring  instincts  revolt,  we  accuse 
them  of  being  unwilling  to  be  serious,  unwilling  to 
work,  even  while  they  are  pleading  to  be  rid  of  us 
that  they  may  get  to  work.  It  is  not  merely  the 
geniuses  like  Newton,  Maxwell,  Kelvin,  and  all  the 
rest  who  thank  the  Lord  when  they  get  out  from 
under  their  teachers,  but  this  is  likewise  true  of 
many  of  the  pupils  of  to-day,  some  of  whom  instinc- 
tively know  what  science  is,  and  are  pursuing  it 
in  spite  of  us  and  outside  of  our  tuition. 

Imagine  one  of  us  in  the  following  situation :  we 
build  a  dam  across  a  stream  of  water,  and  the  pond 
that  thus  results  surrounds  some  trees  which  we 
value.  In  our  ignorance  we  may  think  the  trees 
will  fare  better  now  than  before,  having  an  abundance 
of  water  and  food  brought  to  them  by  the  river. 
But  soon  they  die,  and  we  go  to  the  botanist,  for 
light  on  this  subject,  and  he  undertakes  to  prescribe 
to  us,  as  he  does  to  his  pupils,  something  like  this: 
"You  must  take  a  series  of  preparatory  courses  in 


SCIENCE  TEACHING  BY  PROJECTS      205 

botany  before  I  can  help  you  with  your  problem. 
Here  is  a  First  Course  in  Botany  for  children  which 
I  prescribe."  It  has  158  pages,  the  first  thirty-six 
of  which  classify  leaves  as  net  veined,  parallel 
veined,  feather  veined,  palmate  veined,  entire, 
serrate,  crenate,  dentate,  repand,  hastate,  sagittate, 
lanceolate,  cordate,  ovate,  reniform,  orbicular,  ro- 
tundate,  acicular,  deltoid,  spatulate,  peltate,  run- 
cinate,  pedate,  lyrate,  pinnate,  digitate,  cirrus, 
adnate,  ochreate,  sessile,  etc.,  for  thirty-six  pages. 
You  are  advised  to  have  the  leaves  present  to  make 
the  study  concrete.  This  is  classified  knowledge,  and 
hence  science,  serious  science,  preparatory  serious 
science.  As  a  supplementary  exercise  one  might 
classify  all  the  nails  in  the  school  yard  fence. 

Or  imagine  ourselves  going  to  a  physicist  for 
information  regarding  a  self-starting  system  for 
our  automobile,  and  his  prescribing  Newton's  laws 
of  motion,  Boyle's  law,  Charles'  law,  Lenz's  law, 
Archimedes'  principle,  index  of  refraction,  laws  of 
falling  bodies,  law  of  reflection,  law  of  cooling, 
Ohm's  law,  polarization  in  a  cell,  specific  heat, 
modulus  of  elasticity,  hysteresis,  etc.,  up  to  260 
items  of  unclassified  knowledge  which  the  physicist 
is  so  lacking  in  a  sense  of  humor  as  to  call  serious 
science. 

This  is  the  preparatory  fallacy  and  it  runs  through- 
out all  our  subjects.  Our  method  of  teaching 
to-day  by  the  study  of  "fundamental  principles" 
is  closely  analogous  to  what  was  in  vogue  about  a 
century  ago  in  the  field  of  grammar,  when  children 
were  required  to  commit  to  memory  rules  of  gram- 


206  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

mar,  to  learn  syntactical  laws  of  language  and  acquire 
skill  in  logical  analysis  in  order  that  they  might 
be  prepared  to  read,  write,  and  speak.  The  analogy 
goes  still  further.  We  have  recently  heard  some- 
thing of  an  attempt  to  make  physics  a  little  more 
concrete  by  the  interjection  here  and  there  of  a  few 
applications  of  principles  for  the  sake  of  elucidating 
these  "  fundamentals."  It  was  about  1823  that  the 
teaching  of  rules  of  grammar  was  made  a  trifle  more 
concrete  by  the  introduction  of  sentences  to  which 
the  rules  might  be  applied.  For  a  discussion  of 
this  sort  of  teaching  grammar  see  Dr.  Briggs'  mono- 
graph in  Teachers  College  Record,  Vol.  XIV,  from 
which  it  appears  that  science  teachers  to-day  are  in 
perfect  accord  with  English  teachers  of  a  century 
ago  in  attempting  to  present  an  adult,  scholarly 
interest  to  children  by  a  logical  and  metaphysical 
treatment  of  their  subjects. 

"Tradition  has  perpetuated  details  which  have  lost  much 
or  all  of  their  justification.  When  old  reasons  have  faded  there 
is  a  tendency  to  invent  new  ones  to  justify  practice." 

This  attempt  to  store  facts  for  future  organiza- 
tion is  what  the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Education 
in  Bulletin  4,  1912,  calls  "Education  in  Forgetting." 

"The  structure  and  habits  of  the  human  mind  and  brain  are 
such  that  following  the  psychological  laws  of  segmentation, 
unused  knowledge  tends  to  be  forgotten.  Much,  a  vast  deal, 
of  the  subject-matter  turned  over  and  otherwise  dealt  with  by 
the  subject-study  method  is  of  such  a  nature  that  in  out-of- 
school  hours  and  in  after-school  years  it  remains  unused.  Ex- 
aminations once  passed  and  the  school  year  ended,  subjects  are 
forgotten.  .  .  .  But  project  study  has  merits  peculiarly  its 
own.  No  more  diligent  or  effective  application  of  the  inductive 


SCIENCE  TEACHING  BY  PROJECTS      207 

method  in  education  has  ever  been  witnessed  than  that  pro- 
posed, and  in  good  measure  already  practiced,  by  the  project 
study  of  agriculture." 

"The  knowledge  which  is  the  boy's  quest  in  project  study  is 
knowledge  of  which  he  sees  the  need.  Being  needed  year  by 
year,  it  will,  year  by  year,  be  recalled.  Used  again  and  again, 
added  to,  modified  and  exactly  applied,  it  will  tend  to  be  dis- 
tinctly remembered." 

"The  project  method  of  education,  more,  it  is  believed,  than 
all  others,  takes  into  account  the  aptitudes,  requirements,  and 
accomplishments  of  individual  pupils  as  these  are  revealed  from 
hour  to  hour." 

The  Smith-Lever  bill  which  has  just  passed  Con- 
gress appropriates  five  million  dollars  annually  to 
foster  the  project  method  of  study  in  agriculture 
throughout  the  country. 

The  project  method  in  General  Science  is  more 
specialized  than  any  portion  of  the  college  prepara- 
tory science,  and  like  a  dog  pursuing  a  hare,  it  has 
a  specific  aim,  albeit  it  jumps  those  useless  boundary 
fences  between  the  various  fields  of  science.  This 
is  our  justification  for  the  use  of  the  word  general. 

The  idea  of  completeness  —  complete  statements 
of  facts  and  principles,  is  one  of  the  greatest  barriers 
to  successful  teaching.  The  attempt  to  teach  all 
that  is  known  about  each  topic  results  in  very  little 
being  understood  about  any  topic.  What  is  wanted 
is  to  set  the  face  in  the  right  direction ;  teach  the 
first  steps;  arrange  many  facts  and  many  observa- 
tions to  point  in  a  similar  direction;  acquire  the 
habit  of  having  one  experience  suggest  another. 

The  method  is  precisely  that  of  the  masters  of 
research  who  are,  after  all,  Masters  of  General  Science. 


208  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

There  is  no  difference  between  educating  for  research 
and  educating  for  life.  But  the  high  schools  and 
colleges  have  a  strong  propensity  to  neglect  this, 
their  chief  duty.  It  requires  continual  belaboring 
to  get  the  high  schools  to  do  much  else  than  to  cram 
facts  for  college  use.  The  colleges  do  little  else  for 
education  than  to  prepare  professors'  assistants ; 
professors'  assistants  in  research,  professors'  assist- 
ants in  college  teaching,  professors'  assistants  in 
high-school  preparation  for  college. 

One  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  the  academies 
were  founded  as  a  protest  against  the  idea  which 
dominated  the  grammar  schools  of  the  time  that 
education  consisted  in  storing  the  facts  which  the 
higher  institutions  would  use.  These  academies 
were  called  the  people's  colleges.  The  pupils  were 
to  be  taught  wholly  according  to  their  own  needs. 
But  forthwith  the  process  of  inbreeding  began. 
The  teachers  appointed  for  these  academies  were 
youths  recently  graduated  from  college;  in  effect, 
professors'  assistants  who  stored  data  for  college 
use,  a  process  as  futile  to  the  education  of  the  few 
who  went  to  college  as  to  the  many  who  did  not. 
Again  the  same  protest  was  renewed  fifty  years  ago 
in  the  founding  of  public  high  schools.  These  were 
to  be  free  from  the  preparatory  fallacy  to  which 
the  academies  had  fallen  victims. 

It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  high  schools, 
which  are  the  people's  colleges  of  to-day,  can  be  saved 
from  repeating  this  history.  During  the  last  twenty 
years  we  have  had  committees  of  ten,  of  fifteen,  of 
seven,  and  of  various  other  numbers  laboring  to 


SCIENCE  TEACHING  BY  PROJECTS      209 

saddle  the  preparatory  job  upon  the  under  school. 
Perhaps  the  thing  most  to  be  feared  is  that  the  col- 
leges may  accept  General  Science  and  place  it  in 
the  preparatory  group.  Before  this  happens  we 
must  introduce  into  the  school  and  college  the  psy- 
chological organization  of  instruction  and  suppress 
the  preparatory  fallacy. 


XIV 
PROJECTS  IN  SCIENCE 

A  CERTAIN  man  became  the  possessor  of  a  motor 
boat  which  filled  his  summer  with  projects  for 
interesting  study.  By  inquiry,  by  reading,  and  by 
experiment,  he  found  that  a  very  small  amount  of 
gasoline  vaporized  and  mixed  with  each  cylinder 
full  of  air  constituted  an  explosive  mixture  which, 
when  fired,  furnished  the  power.  He  found  that 
the  proportions  were  fixed  within  very  narrow  limits ; 
say,  four  drops  to  each  quart  of  air.  Varying  the 
proportions  to  either  three  or  five  drops  would 
result  in  a  weaker  explosion;  hence  the  necessity 
of  a  very  careful  adjustment  in  the  carburetor. 

To  explode  this  mixture  an  electric  spark  must  be 
produced  inside  the  cylinder  at  the  proper  instant. 
This  spark  was  produced  by  a  battery  of  dry  cells. 
Rubbing  together  two  wires  leading  from  opposite 
terminals  of  this  battery  would  produce  a  faint 
spark,  but  this  spark  would  not  explode  a  mixture 
of  gasoline  and  air ;  it  was  not  hot  enough.  Indeed, 
the  coal  upon  the  end  of  his  cigar  would  not  explode 
the  gasoline  and  air.  A  coil  of  wire  surrounding 
a  soft  iron  core  must  be  introduced  into  the  circuit 
to  produce  a  spark  having  sufficient  heat  to  ignite 
the  mixture. 

210 


PROJECTS  IN  SCIENCE 

As  one  searching  through  an  encyclopedia  for 
certain  information  often  gets  sidetracked  upon 
some  other  search,  so  this  man  spent  many  days 
or  even  whole  weeks  passing  through  one  project 
to  another.  The  mysterious  action  of  the  coil; 
the  tracing  of  the  current  through  its  complete 
circuit;  the  timing  of  the  spark  by  means  of  a 
commutator;  the  oiling  devices;  the  circulation  of 
water  for  cooling  the  engine;  the  clutch  for  engag- 
ing the  engine  with  the  propeller,  to  go  forward  or 
backward  or  stop.  All  these  and  many  other  proj- 
ects seemed  to  him  to  be  real  physics;  nay,  more 
and  better  than  real  physics. 

A  second  man,  possessing  an  automobile,  pursued 
a  dozen  or  two  projects  of  study  more  absorbing 
than  anything  else  which  he  had  on  his  mind  during 
the  whole  winter.  With  books  of  instruction  fur- 
nished by  dealers  he  studied  carburetors,  throttles, 
chokers,  "vacuum  feeds,"  high-tension  magnetos, 
spark  plugs,  cooling  devices,  self-starting  devices, 
differentials,  clutches,  gears,  countershafts,  breaks, 
horns,  springs,  "shock  absorbers,"  tires,  "non-skid" 
devices,  mufflers,  silencers,  steering  devices,  lighting 
systems,  lubrication,  storage  batteries,  cycles,  horse- 
power, generators,  motors,  relative  merits  of  engines 
with  four,  six,  eight,  and  twelve  cylinders,  non- 
freezing  solutions,  thermosyphons,  pumps,  care  of 
varnish,  speedometers,  ammeters,  the  retarding  of 
the  spark  on  going  up  a  hill,  the  causes  of  "knock- 
ing" in  an  automobile  engine,  etc. 

A  third  man  bought  a  small  farm  and  began  to 
read  farmers'  bulletins  which  he  procured  from  the 


THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

Government  Bureau  at  Washington.  For  three 
months  he  was  the  butt  of  ridicule  as  a  "  literary 
farmer,"  but  nothing  ever  took  such  real  possession 
of  his  mental  faculties  as  that  project  of  making  the 
ten  acres  produce  all  the  grass  it  was  capable  of. 
In  the  course  of  a  few  years,  according  to  an  account 
which  he  published,  the  neighboring  farmers  were 
eager  to  learn  how  he  had  succeeded  in  producing 
seven  blades  of  grass  where  one  had  previously 
grown.  These  studies  appeared  to  him  to  be  real 
botany,  nay,  more  than  botany,  real  science. 

A  fourth  man  spent  a  few  days  at  Mammoth 
Cave  and  came  back  with  projects  which  seemed  to 
him  to  be  the  most  interesting  studies  in  the  fields 
of  geography,  geology,  zoology,  botany,  physics, 
and  chemistry.  He  was  so  enthusiastic  over  the 
results  of  these  studies  that  they  entered  into  every 
speech  he  made  for  the  next  year  or  so. 

A  fifth  man  spent  a  summer  by  the  seaside  and 
heard  faintly  on  a  few  occasions  the  sounds  of  a 
bell  buoy  anchored  four  miles  away.  He  reflected 
upon  the  problem  of  what  conditions  must  obtain 
in  order  that  that  sound  might  carry  so  far.  He 
questioned  many  men  and  read  upon  the  subject 
until  he  got  his  mind  possessed  with  an  explana- 
tion which  forms  the  substance  of  an  interesting 
article. 

These  five  men,  all  intelligent  men  —  at  least 
they  are  professors  —  have  testified  that  these 
projects  furnished  them  exceedingly  fruitful  themes 
for  study.  They  will  not  admit  that  those  studies 
lacked  organization  nor  that  they  were  desultory  and 


PROJECTS  IN  SCIENCE  213 

scrappy.  None  of  them  was  prepared  for  these 
studies  by  specializing  in  those  fields  any  more  than 
Pasteur  was  prepared  by  his  formal  education  for 
the  six  or  eight  great  projects  which  made  him  one 
of  the  greatest '  scientists  and  the  greatest  French- 
man that  has  lived. 

Young  people  have  plenty  of  projects  which  we 
ty  help  them  to  study  if  we  choose.     It  is  not  often 
possible  to  hinder  their  studying  them  if  we  will, 
"hey  furnish  the  natural  means  for  starting  them 
>n  a  scientific  career.     Why  do  we  require  young 
>eople  in  school  to  use  a  different  method  of  study 
from  that  used  by  all  of  us  outside  of  school  ?     Why 
should   we  be   averse   to   using   methods   of   study 
in  science  which  are  considered  eminently  proper  in 
other    departments  ?     Why    should    instruction    be 
for   specialization    rather    than    for    "magnanimity 
and  enlightenment"?     Why  this  mania  for  codify- 
ing subject  matter  which  has  cankered  education 
during  the  last  two  decades  ? 

If  the  two  or  three  hundred  "fundamental  prin- 
ciples" in  physics,  for  example,  are  fundamental, 
why  do  intelligent  people  having  once  learned  them 
forget  them  without  regret?  Why  do  engineers 
have  little  UW*'RBd  muchcontempt  for  them  ?  Why 
do  those  engaged  in  research  in  fields  of  physics 
ignore  them?  Is  it  tacitly  for  purposes  of  mental 
discipline  that  they  are  taught?  Are  students  in 
schools  and  colleges  made  into  scientists  by  learn- 
ing the  so-called  fundamental  facts,  or  by  practicing 
the  methods  of  a  scientist  in  finding  the  solution  of 
real  problems  ? 


214  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

The  following  project  is  taken  from  the  notebook 
of  a  young  man  who  spent  a  summer  on  a  farm. 

Drowning  Trees  —  A  Project 

We  dammed  a  small  stream  to  make  a  skating 
pond  and  a  place  for  cutting  ice  in  winter.  The 
pond  which  was  thus  formed  surrounded  certain 
trees  in  the  valley  which  had  often  suffered  for  water 
during  dry  spells.  Some  of  us  thought  this  would 
be  a  benefit  to  the  trees,  inasmuch  as  they  would 
hereafter  always  have  an  abundance  of  water. 
Furthermore,  the  stream  would  now  deposit  about 
the  roots  of  the  trees  an  abundance  of  the  food  which 
they  would  need.  In  spite  of  our  good  intentions, 
however,  the  trees  soon  died.  Upon  inquiry  we 
learned  that  the  trees  had  been  drowned.  They 
needed  air  at  the  roots  quite  as  much  as  water.  We 
were  then  reminded  that  a  neighbor  when  he  re- 
graded  the  land  in  front  of  his  house  had  built  a 
circular  retaining  wall  around  a  tree  to  keep  the 
earth  from  being  banked  against  the  tree  itself 
and  excluding  the  air.  Another  man  said  that  it 
would  do  quite  as  well  to  pile  loose  stones  against 
the  tree  and  throw  earth  over  them,  and  let  the 
grass  grow  quite  up  to  the  tree.  Air  would  readily 
find  its  way  to  the  roots  through  loose  soil,  as  indeed 
it  does  to  all  trees.  He  said  that  earthworms, 
ground  moles,  and  various  burrowing  animals  loosen 
up  the  soil  and  let  the  air  in.  The  earth  is  venti- 
lated annually  in  preparation  for  the  summer  crops. 
When  water  in  the  ground  freezes  it  expands ;  we  say 
it  heaves  the  ground  up.  Then  when  in  the  spring- 


PROJECTS  IN  SCIENCE  215 

time  the  ice  melts  and  the  water  drains  out,  much 
room  is  left  for  air  to  come  in.  Thus  land  which 
may  be  very  hard  in  autumn  becomes  soft  and 
spongy  in  spring. 

Spring  is  the  time  to  mend  fences.  One  can  dig 
post  holes  easily  then.  Spring  is  the  time  to  cart 
off  from  the  fields  the  stones  which  the  winter  frosts 
have  brought  to  the  surface. 

Soils  which  are  too  clayey  to  let  the  water  drain 
out  of  them  may  for  lack  of  air  sustain  only  a  very 
stunted  growth  of  vegetation.  The  mixing  of  gravel 
with  such  land,  thus  letting  in  air,  will  sometimes 
make  it  produce  abundantly.  All  soils  are  im- 
proved by  having  a  network  of  drains  a  few  feet 
below  the  surface,  so  that  all  the  water  which  will 
drain  off  may  do  so.  The  ideal  arrangement  for 
plants  is  a  loose,  porous  soil  with  air  filling  all  the 
spaces  between  the  particles  and  only  so  much 
water  present  as  will  cling  to  the  surface  of  the 
particles.  This  is  called  capillary  moisture,  to 
indicate  that  the  spaces  must  be  very  small  so  that 
water  will  creep  through  the  soil  as  kerosene  does 
through  the  lamp  wick. 

The  care  of  potted  plants  requires  continual 
thought  about  maintaining  the  balance  between 
air  and  water  at  the  roots.  If  the  soil  is  very  rich 
and  has  little  gravel  in  it  and  if  water  is  always 
poured  on  from  above,  the  soil  gets  packed  down  so 
hard  that  air  may  not  enter.  The  hole  in  the  bottom 
of  the  pot  permits  of  under-draining,  but  the  water 
soon  makes  channels  down  through  the  mass,  and 
it  does  not  spread  to  all  the  rootlets.  In  the  hardly 


216  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

packed  earth  they  may  be  suffering  for  both  air  and 
water  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  pot  is  porous  and 
that  it  receives  frequent  watering.  By  this  con- 
sideration soil  may  be  too  rich  as  well  as  too  poor. 
It  must  have  air  and  moisture  quite  as  much  as 
fertilizing  material.  If  the  soil  is  rightly  propor- 
tioned it  will  suffice  to  pour  water  into  the  saucer. 
The  proper  amount  of  both  air  and  water  will  creep 
through  the  soil. 

Persons  who  set  out  young  plants,  thinking  that 
the  tender  roots  require  very  soft  soil,  sometimes 
make  the  mistake  of  not  packing  the  dirt  around 
them  firmly  enough.  The  result  is  that  while  they 
get  plenty  of  air  they  have  too  little  moisture. 
Moisture  creeps  by  capillarity  through  very  small 
spaces,  not  large  ones.  If  the  soil  is  properly  pro- 
portioned the  best  way  is  to  press  it  as  firmly  as 
one  can  around  young  plants  when  they  are  first 
being  set  out. 

The  surface  of  the  ground  should  be  frequently 
scratched  over  to  make  the  spaces  between  the 
particles  at  the  surface  too  large  for  the  water  to 
creep  by  capillarity  quite  to  the  surface  and  pass 
off  by  evaporation.  This  is  one  great  reason  for 
hoeing,  harrowing,  and  cultivating  fields.  Another 
is  to  kill  weeds. 

Some  people  have  asked  whether  earthworms 
rain  down  since  they  are  seen  in  such  great  numbers 
crawling  on  the  surface  of  the  ground  after  a  rain 
storm.  The  fact  is  that  they  crawl  out  of  the 
ground  to  get  air,  having  been  drowned  out.  They 
cannot  live  without  air  as  long  as  the  trees  and 


PROJECTS  IN  SCIENCE  217 

some  other  plants  can.  There  are  certain  plants, 
however,  which  are  able  to  live  in  earth  that  is  per- 
petually flooded  with  water,  as  we  see  about  all 
ponds  and  streams. 

In  winter,  when  there  is  lack  of  air  and  water  at 
the  roots,  lack  of  heat  to  stimulate  chemical  activities, 
lack  of  green  matter  in  leaves  to  respond  to  the 
actinic  ray  of  the  sun,  plants  put  winter  blankets 
upon  their  buds  and  on  their  root  tips  and  remain 
dormant. 


XV 

THE  NATURAL  METHOD1 

WE  sometimes  hear  it  said  that  one  cannot 
teach  applications  of  physical  principles  until  the 
principles  themselves  are  understood.  I  wish  to 
contend  that  only  the  converse  of  this  proposition 
is  true.  That  is,  we  cannot  teach  the  principles 
of  physics  except  through  an  experience  with  their 
applications.  Of  course  these  principles  were  first 
learned  by  mankind  through  their  manifold  appli- 
cations in  nature,  and  I  venture  to  say  that  with 
each  one  of  us  it  has  been  true  that  the  principles 
which  we  did  grasp  in  our  pupil  days  were  those  for 
which  we  had  been  prepared  by  previous  experi- 
ence, and  there  were  many  principles  taught  us 
which  we  did  not  comprehend  until  later  in  life 
when  we  had  met  the  experience  necessary  for  their 
comprehension. 

In  a  very  real  sense  one  studies  physics  from  his 
birth  to  his  grave  irrespective  of  his  formal  educa- 
tion. The  function  of  the  school  should  be  to  help 
the  pupil  to  interpret  his  experiences.  When  we 
find  physics  very  difficult  the  probability  is  that 
we  are  trying  to  build  without  the  necessary  ground- 

1  Abstract  of  an  address  delivered  before  the  Eastern  Association  of 
Physics  Teachers,  Boston,  1915. 

218 


THE  NATURAL  METHOD 

work  of  experience.  The  extra-academic  study  of 
physics  which  each  one  of  us  pursues  through  our 
experiences  during  the  whole  of  life  is  of  vastly 
greater  importance  than  the  formal  study  of  that 
subject  in  schools.  One  may  be  a  master  of  physics 
without  the  formal  study,  but  he  can  have  no  com- 
prehension of  the  subject  at  all  without  the  projects 
which  grow  out  of  life's  experiences.  The  char- 
acteristic of  education  which  has  been  most  often 
noted  is  the  tendency  to  teach  "fundamental  prin- 
ciples" without  rooting  them  in  experience. 

The  person  who  hangs  upon  the  strap  in  a  street 
car  and  has  acquired  the  habit  of  reflecting  upon 
his  experience  finds  it  natural  to  say  when  the  car 
starts  and  he  has  to  tug  upon  the  strap  to  get  him- 
self started,  "A  body  at  rest  tends  to  remain  at  rest." 
When  the  car  stops  and  he  pulls  on  the  strap  in  the 
effort  to  bring  his  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  to 
rest  it  is  not  difficult  for  him  to  say,  "A  body  in 
motion  tends  to  continue  in  motion,"  and  when  the 
car  turns  a  corner  he  learns  by  his  tussle  with  the 
strap  that  "A  moving  body  tends  to  continue  mov- 
ing in  a  straight  line." 

Projects  in  physics  begin  with  learning  to  walk, 
learning  to  walk  on  stilts,  learning  to  skate,  to  swim, 
to  swing,  to  teeter,  to  "snap  the  whip,"  to  play  "duck 
on  a  rock,"  to  ride  horseback,  to  ride  a  bicycle,  to 
sail  a  boat,  to  fly  kites,  to  curve  a  baseball,  to  play 
billiards,  to  make  water  wheels,  to  shoot,  to  fish, 
etc.  These  projects  are  invariably  studied  by  the 
method  of  "trial  and  error."  These  are  not  pas- 
times, although  they  are  play.  They  are  very 


220  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

effective  studies  in  physics.  They  furnish  the  means 
for  "organizing  common  sense"  according  to  Hux- 
ley's definition  of  science. 

Let  me  suggest  a  new  type  of  college  entrance 
examination  for  physics.  Have  the  candidate  move 
a  heavy  log.  If  he  attacks  it  in  the  middle  and 
gives  up,  reject  him.  If  he  moves  it  by  lifting  at 
the  end,  admit  him.  Have  the  candidate  step  on 
and  off  a  moving  platform.  If  he  does  it  grace- 
fully, receive  him.  If  he  falls  headlong,  refuse  him. 
Have  the  candidate  discharge  a  sling.  If  he  hits 
the  mark,  admit  him  to  college.  If  he  hits  the 
umpire,  condition  him.  Have  the  candidate  tend 
a  hot-air  furnace.  If  he  adjusts  all  the  drafts  and 
dampers  wisely,  admit  him.  If  he  shuts  the  "cold- 
air  box"  to  keep  out  the  cold,  as  many  of  his  profes- 
sors do,  reject  him. 

This  is  the  age  of  machinery,  when  a  majority  of 
intelligent  folk  would  rather  know  about  an  auto- 
mobile than  to  know  much  about  the  college  type 
of  physics. 

Our  so-called  thoroughness  is  rather  wooden. 
One  hundred  men  know  about  the  differential 
of  an  automobile;  ninety  of  them  know  what 
it  is  for;  nine  of  them  know  about  its  anatomy, 
and  one,  knowing  what  it  is  desired  to  accomplish, 
can  design  it.  The  first  group  are  the  owners ;  the 
second,  the  chauffeurs;  and  the  last  man  is  the 
chief  engineer  at  the  factory.  Each  has  the  knowl- 
edge that  he  needs.  It  is  not  necessary  to  call  the 
first  group  "smatterers."  Some  of  them  are  likely 
to  be  doctors  of  philosophy,  and  hence  are  supposed 


THE  NATURAL  METHOD 

not  to  be  victims  of  "soft  pedagogy"  or  "kinder- 
garten methods."  If  occasion  demands  additional 
knowledge,  the  natural  advance  is  in  the  order  stated 
above ;  namely  :  First,  What  is  it  for  ?  Second,  the 
details  of  its  structure.  Third,  the  invention  of  the 
device.  Teachers  of  physics  sometimes  try  to  re- 
verse this  order,  and  when  the  inevitable  failure 
results,  their  subterfuge  is  to  charge  the  world  with 
lack  of  thoroughness. 


XVI 

THE  HIGH-SCHOOL  SITUATION1 

TABLE  showing  the  number  of  high  schools  in 
the  United  States  at  certain  periods : 

NUMBER  OF  NUMBER  OF 

HIGH  SCHOOLS  YEAH     HIGH  SCHOOLS  YEAR 

1 1821  160 1870 

2 1838  800 1880 

3 1843  4158 1890 

4 1847  8000 1907 

40 1860  13071 1914 

The  above  table  shows  the  high-school  situation 
in  a  nutshell.  Such  phenomenal  growth  has  of  ne- 
cessity produced  conditions  which  are  embarrassing. 

Less  than  one  hundred  years  ago,  there  was  but 
one  high  school  in  the  whole  United  States  —  The 
English  High  School  in  Boston.  It  was  seventeen 
years  before  the  second  one  was  established  —  that 
was  in  Philadelphia.  Five  years  later  the  third  one 
was  started  in  Providence,  and  the  fourth  one  came 
in  Hartford  in  1847  —  26  years  after  the  first  one. 
There  were  only  40  high  schools  in  the  United 
States  in  1860,  when  some  of  us  were  beginning  our 
education.  When  I  began  teaching  in  the  high 

1  Abstract  of  an  address  delivered  before  the  New  York  Chemistry 
Teachers'  Club  in  1917. 

222 


THE  HIGH-SCHOOL  SITUATION          223 

schools,  there  were  800,  and  the  1914  report  of  the 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education  gives 
the  number  as  13,714.  There  are,  at  this  present 
date,  probably  15,000.  Buildings,  equipment,  and 
teaching  force  have  not  kept  pace  with  that  rapid 
increase  in  the  number  of  schools.  I  say  unhesitat- 
ingly that  we  are  not  as  well  off  for  rooms  in  which 
to  teach,  nor  for  equipment  with  which  to  teach,  nor 
for  teachers  as  we  were  36  years  ago.  And  this  is  but 
the  necessary  consequence  of  our  astonishing  growth. 
When  I  began  to  teach,  those  800  high  schools 
were  all  little  affairs,  averaging  perhaps  25  pupils 
each.  There  were  not  so  many  high-school  pupils 
in  the  whole  country  then  as  there  are  now  in  some 
single  high  schools.  We  have  several  high  schools 
in  New  York  City  now  that  have  more  pupils  than 
all  the  United  States  had  when  I  began  to  teach. 
The  pupils  now  number  about  1,500,000  against,  say, 
four  or  five  thousand  in  the  whole  country  then. 
Think  what  the  situation  was  like  36  years  ago. 
I  recall  it  very  distinctly.  One  was  apt  to  have 
about  6  pupils  in  the  chemistry  class.  We  had 
laboratories  then  as  we  have  now,  and  with  6  pupils 
—  all  American  born  —  homogeneous  —  there  was 
no  reason  why  one  should  not  do  good  teaching,  at 
least  the  best  he  was  capable  of.  If  what  some  one 
has  said  be  true,  that  the  instruction  which  each 
pupil  receives  is  inversely  proportional  to  the  num- 
ber of  pupils  in  a  class,  there  can  be  no  good  teach- 
ing in  the  great  high  schools  of  to-day.  When  we 
reflect  upon  the  large  number  of  pupils  that  a  teacher 
has  to  handle  in  each  recitation,  the  large  number  of 


THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

recitations  each  day,  the  care  of  apparatus  in  such 
large  quantities,  the  necessity  of  ordering  apparatus 
and  supplies  a  whole  year  ahead  of  time  and  then 
rarely  getting  what  one  orders,  the  high-school  situ- 
ation seems  not  only  embarrassing  but  impossible. 
I  recall  that  I  secured  during  the  years  I  taught  in 
the  high  schools  the  privilege  of  buying  directly 
from  an  appropriation  whatever  I  needed,  and  I 
also  had  the  privilege  of  planning  the  work  —  there 
was  no  syllabus,  and  no  specific  college  requirement. 
It  was  a  free  hand  for  teaching  individual  pupils 
according  to  their  needs. 

When  schools  were  small,  a  teacher  was  not  all 
the  while  being  supervised  and  super-supervised  as 
at  present.  A  teacher  who  knew  his  job  was  not 
then  handicapped  by  the  supervision  of  those  who 
knew  it  not.  This  is  a  familiar  feature  of  the  great 
systems  of  to-day. 

In  those  days  when  schools  were  small,  politics 
did  not  enter.  It  was  not  worth  while. 

In  those  days  we  did  not  have  a  mongrel  lot  of 
pupils  of  all  races  not  yet  amalgamated.  Only 
those  got  into  the  high  schools  who  were  fairly  alike, 
intelligent  persons,  coming  from  intelligent  families. 

I  do  not  think  the  tax-payer  is  slow  in  appreciating 
the  value  of  the  schools  of  to-day.  One-third  of  his 
taxes  goes  to  the  schools  and  the  high  schools  get 
about  one-fifth  of  the  school  tax.  We  are  spending 
on  the  education  of  each  high-school  pupil  about  five 
times  as  much  yearly  as  we  did  thirty-six  years  ago 
but  I  believe  we  are  giving  him  poorer  instruction. 

Another  condition  which  may  not  be  called  em- 


THE  HIGH-SCHOOL  SITUATION          225 

barrassing,  but  which  I  am  sure  we  do  not  provide 
for  adequately,  is  that  the  girls  predominate  very 
largely  over  the  boys,  and  we  generally  plan  for  the 
boys  and  do  not  think  of  the  girls.  The  percentage 
of  girls  in  our  high  schools  is  increasing.  Ten  years 
ago  48  per  cent  of  the  pupils  were  boys  and  52  per 
cent  girls.  To-day  44  per  cent  are  boys  and  56  per 
cent  are  girls.  And  when  it  comes  to  graduates,  40 
per  cent  of  the  graduating  classes  are  boys  and  60 
per  cent  are  girls.  The  girls  continue  longer  in  the 
high  schools  and  go  to  college  in  about  equal  num- 
bers with  the  boys.  When  I  was  a  college  student, 
a  college  girl  was  a  rare,  not  to  say  a  unique, 
thing,  anywhere  in  the  country.  Almost  all  the 
colleges  and  universities  now  receive  women  as  well 
as  men.  I  can  at  this  moment  think  of  but  four 
institutions  that  exclude  women  from  candidacy 
for  the  undergraduate  degrees.  There  are  a  large 
number  of  institutions,  chiefly  state  universities, 
that  have  more  women  than  men.  The  college 
women  seem  to  be  likely,  in  the  near  future,  to  gain 
more  prizes,  such  as  election  to  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  than 
the  men.  And  if  in  the  future,  as  in  the  recent  past, 
men  in  the  community  continue  to  drift  into  office 
work  and  women  continue  to  drift  into  the  control  of 
practical  affairs,  it  will  soon  be  true  that  women  will 
surpass  men  in  their  knowledge  of  physical  science. 
Another  item  in  the  high-school  situation  which  is 
worthy  of  comment  is  the  fact  that  out  of  13,715 
high  schools,  10,547  are  schools  with  only  3  teachers 
each.  Very  few  high  schools  —  three  or  four  hun- 
dred —  have  specialized  teachers  of  any  particular 


226  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

science.  In  the  face  of  this  fact  we  have  recently 
undertaken  to  equip  teachers  for  the  schools  with 
that  dense  ignorance  which  characterizes  specialists. 
This  is  doubtless  a  passing  phase  in  secondary 
education. 

Thirty-six  years  ago,  the  value  of  the  books  in  the 
high-school  library  was  many  times  the  value  of  the 
apparatus  for  science  teaching.  Now  the  figures 
are :  sixteen  million  dollars  for  scientific  apparatus 
against  six  million  volumes  in  the  library.  The 
"scientific  apparatus"  has  not  much  to  do  with  the 
interpretation  of  life  and  should  give  place  to  "  com- 
mercial stuff,"  but  the  most  disgraceful  thing  about 
the  present  situation  is  that  the  libraries  do  not 
contain  anything  useful.  A  lot  of  the  high  schools 
have  in  their  libraries  no  books  of  science  that  any 
one  reads.  Meanwhile  the  community  outside  of 
the  schools  is  reading  much  that  should  gain  ad- 
mission to  the  school  libraries  as  a  real  aid  to  science 
instruction. 

Not  only  have  the  schools  within  the  last  third 
of  a  century  become  overcrowded  with  pupils,  but 
they  are  greatly  overcrowded  with  subjects,  the 
number  having  increased  from  half  a  dozen  to  more 
than  two  dozen  in  typical  high  schools. 

The  greatest  cause  for  embarrassment,  however,  is 
our  changing  ideas  concerning  the  purpose  for  teach- 
ing any  subject.  Three  or  four  decades  ago,  if 
we  wanted  to  indicate  that  a  man  had  great  knowl- 
edge, we  always  attributed  to  him  great  powers  of 
memory.  President  or  professor  so  and  so  was  a 
wonderfully  bright  man  because  he  could  remember 


THE  HIGH-SCHOOL  SITUATION          227 

the  old  students  and  call  them  by  name  whenever 
they  came  back  to  visit  alma  mater.  Afterward  it 
dawned  upon  us  that  a  table  waiter  surpassed  pro- 
fessors and  presidents  in  the  matter  of  memory.  I 
remember  one  of  the  first  shocks  I  got  on  that  theory 
of  education.  Many  years  ago  while  attending  a 
teachers'  convention  at  Saratoga  several  hundred  of 
us  passed  into  the  hotel  dining  room  and  a  big, 
burly  negro  took  our  hats  without  checking  them. 
When  we  came  out  he  astonished  us  by  handing 
each  his  own  hat.  And  I  said,  "What  is  the  use  of 
a  college  education  ?  " 


xvn 

THE  AIMS  AND  METHODS  OF  SCIENCE 
TEACHING 

THE  aims  and  methods  of  science  are  best  por- 
trayed in  the  lives  and  labors  of  those  masters  of 
science  who  have  lived  since  the  time  of  Galileo, 
notably  Pasteur  and  Faraday.  These  aims  and 
methods  are  now  so  generally  approved  and  applied 
by  the  teachers  of  all  subjects  that  the  "scientific" 
method  no  longer  distinguishes  the  science  work 
from  other  work  in  the  schools.  Science  teaching, 
if  it  follows  the  examples  of  Pasteur,  Faraday,  etc., 
may  not  justly  be  differentiated  from  other  subjects 
as  materialistic  or  lacking  in  cultural  or  humani- 
tarian elements. 

The  purpose  of  science  teaching  in  all  grades  of 
schools  is  not  chiefly  to  impart  knowledge  of  subject 
matter  but  to  train  persons  in  the  method  of  the 
masters,  which  is  invariably  the  project  method. 
This  is  the  method  used  by  intelligent  men  in  achiev- 
ing their  ends,  in  school  or  out. 
/  A  project  is  characterized  in  the  words  of  Pro- 
fessor Mann  as  follows : 

"  (1)  A  desire  to  understand  the  meaning  and  use  of  some  fact, 
phenomenon,  or  experience.  This  leads  to  questions  and  prob- 
lems. (2)  A  conviction  that  it  is  worth  while  and  possible  to 

228 


THE  AIMS  OF  SCIENCE  TEACHING 

secure  an  understanding  of  the  thing  in  question.  This  causes 
one  to  work  with  an  impelling  interest.  (3)  The  gathering  from 
experience,  books,  and  experiments  of  the  needed  information, 
and  the  application  of  this  information  to  answer  the  question 
in  hand." 

A  project,  or  problem,  differs  from  and  is  superior 
to  a  topic  in  that  (1)  a  project  originates  in  some 
question,  and  not  in  such  a  logical  sequence  of  ideas 
as  may  be  found  in  codified  subject  matter.  In 
teaching  from  the  so-called  "logical"  texts  one 
wrongly  attempts  to  induce  pupils  to  accept  topics 
as  their  own  projects.  Logical  organization  of 
such  material  as  functions  in  life  will  be  the  final 
result  of  a  protracted  study  of  projects.  (2)  The 
project  involves  the  active  and  motivated  partici- 
pation of  the  pupil  in  carrying  it  out.  It  does  not, 
therefore,  like  the  topic  lend  itself  to  didactic,  formal 
treatment  in  which  the  teacher  does  all  the  think- 
ing and  the  pupil  passively  absorbs.  (3)  Projects 
furnish  a  basis  for  the  selection  of  facts  according 
to  value  or  significance,  topics  furnish  no  such  basis 
for  selection.  (4)  The  project  seldom  ends  in  a 
complete,  final,  or  absolutely  finished  conclusion. 
It  is,  therefore,  far  less  likely  than  is  the  topic  to 
leave  the  pupil  with  the  idea  that  he  has  heard  the 
last  word  on  the  subject.  It  leaves  him  open- 
minded.  The  project,  or  problem  method  of  teach- 
ing when  well  done  leaves  the  pupil  with  a  well- 
organized  mass  of  useful  information  plus  a  method 
of  work  which  will  lead  him  to  continue  to  acquire 
more.  This  entire  discussion  arises  from  the  fact  that 
the  logical,  topical  method  has  failed  to  do  just  this. 


230  THE  TEACHING  OP  SCIENCE 

Children  and  adults  alike  are  endowed  by  nature 
with  the  elements  of  the  scientific  spirit.  The  pur- 
pose of  science  teaching  is  accomplished  most  suc- 
cessfully when  the  science  classes  merely  furnish 
and  shape  an  environment  in  which  the  scientific 
spirit  may  grow.  Under  the  direction  of  a  teacher 
who  comprehends  the  workings  of  the  mind,  the 
project  method  duplicates  the  methods  of  active 
life  and  thus  prepares  the  pupil  for  independent 
thinking. 

The  present  need  of  the  schools  is  for  a  large  col- 
lection of  sample  projects,  or  problems,  which  may 
be  used  in  showing  teachers  in  a  given  community 
how  to  devise  and  utilize  projects  adapted  to  dif- 
ferent grades  of  pupils  in  their  own  environment. 
The  curriculum  is  the  sum  of  such  projects.  It 
must  always  remain  in  a  state  of  flux. 


xvni 

THE  IMITATION  OF  THE  MASTERS1 

IN  using  the  project  method,  one  does  not  begin 
with  a  topic  or  a  caption  like  a  proposition  in  geom- 
etry. The  project  is  in  its  nature  less  formal,  less 
conscious  of  what  conclusion  is  to  be  reached.  It 
cannot,  if  genuine,  proceed  according  to  a  plan  of 
organization  imposed  by  another.  It  works  toward 
conclusions  which  may  be  far  distant.  It  is  merely 
the  method  of  research  adapted  to  the  age  and  ca- 
pacity of  the  individual.  It  works  toward  defi- 
nitions and  fundamental  principles  rather  than  from 
them.  In  short,  it  reverses  the  prevailing  order  of 
school  procedure  and  follows  the  natural  method  of 
scientific  workers. 

Any  one  who  has  observed  the  innumerable  at- 
tempts during  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  to  codify 
logically  the  subject  matter  of  science  for  school 
programs,  any  one  who  has  listened  to  the  academic 
and  endless  discussions  regarding  the  syllabus  which 
engage  the  attention  of  teachers'  conventions,  must 
sometimes  feel  that  high-school  and  college  courses 
in  science  are  designed  to  kill  research,  which  is,  after 
all,  merely  the  method  of  intelligent  life. 

Our  "text-books"  in  physics  and  chemistry  are 

1  Abstract  of  an  address  delivered  before  the  Conference  of  School- 
men at  University  of  Pennsylvania,  April  11,  1918. 

231 


232  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

chiefly  encyclopedias,  or,  in  some  cases,  dictionaries. 
They  are  not,  properly  speaking,  text-books.  They 
should  be  treated  as  books  of  reference.  They  are 
not  courses  of  study.  Those  who  call  project  study 
a  hodgepodge  and  oppose  to  it  what  they  call  a 
logical  arrangement,  or  a  plan  of  organization  of 
subject  matter,  are  thinking  of  these  so-called  text- 
books as  study  plans.  One  might  as  well  hope  to 
get  history  from  an  encyclopedia  as  science  from  an 
encyclopedic  text-book.  Real  science  instruction 
follows  a  different  kind  of  organization  from  that  of 
the  encyclopedia  or  the  dictionary.  We  get  liter- 
ature from  Shakespeare,  not  from  the  dictionary. 
But  Shakespeare  is  a  hodgepodge  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  lexicographer,  Shakespeare  is  not  ar- 
ranged alphabetically.  And  the  orderly  projects  of 
Pasteur  are  a  hodgepodge  from  the  standpoint  of 
some  of  our  elementary  science  texts. 

Dictionaries,  encyclopedias,  and  such  text-books 
as  we  now  have  are  very  satisfactory  books  of 
reference.  But  students  in  schools  and  colleges 
should  have  books  which  present  science  as  living 
projects.  They  should  read  as  many  books  in  sci- 
ence as  they  read  in  literature.  No  scientist  has 
ever  developed  without  this  reading  habit.  He  who 
will  study  the  lives  of  the  masters  of  science  will 
find  that  they  were  all  great  readers.  They  were 
also  rebellious  against  the  formalism  of  the  schools. 
And  they  pursued  projects  in  science  apart  from 
teachers  and  schools.  These  projects  have  an  or- 
ganization unknown  to  the  schools  but  known  and 
approved  by  all  of  the  masters  of  science. 


THE  IMITATION  OF  THE  MASTERS      233 

I  suggest  books,  not  as  a  side  issue,  but  books 
to  be  used  as  the  teachers  of  English  use  books,  a 
dozen  or  more  a  year  for  each  pupil,  not  the  same 
books  year  after  year.  We  have  hundreds  to  choose 
from. 

Among  the  books,  which  students  should  read  and 
report  upon,  are  scores  of  biographies  of  the  scien- 
tists, histories  of  the  development  of  science  and 
invention,  original  monographs  of  the  work  of 
scientists,  such  books  as  John  Tyndall  and  Silvanus 
Thompson  wrote  on  scientific  subjects,  etc.,  etc. 

The  great  masters  of  science,  Galileo,  Faraday, 
Pasteur,  Darwin,  etc.,  illustrated  in  all  their  lives 
and  work  the  project  method.  The  intelligent  man 
illlustrates  it  in  all  his  work  outside  of  the  field  of 
education.  High-school  pupils  use  the  project 
method  in  all  their  self-directed  work  outside  of 
school.  But  when  the  schoolmaster  undertakes  to 
direct  the  pursuit  for  knowledge,  he  formalizes,  he 
systematizes,  he  schematizes,  and  invariably  inverts 
the  natural  order  of  learning.  The  result  is  that 
our  young  people  are  getting  their  real  science  through 
various  outside  agencies. 

About  the  time  of  our  Revolutionary  War  there 
lived  in  the  parish  of  Selborne,  England,  an  excellent 
exponent  of  the  project  method.  His  name  was 
Gilbert  White.  He  roamed  the  fields  and  woods  to 
see  what  he  should  see  and  made  notes  of  his  ob- 
servations upon  a  great  variety  of  subjects.  His 
book,  published  under  the  title  Natural  History  of 
Selborne,  is  still  a  classic. 

Very  perfect  illustrations  of  the  project  method 


234  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

are  to  be  found  in  the  works  of  Galileo,  Davy,  Fara- 
day, etc.,  but  Louis  Pasteur  was  the  greatest  master 
of  the  project  method  and  nowhere  is  the  method 
better  presented  than  in  The  Life  of  Pasteur  by  his 
son-in-law,  Rene  Vallery-Radot,  Doubleday,  Page 
&Co. 

It  is  easier,  and  perhaps  more  important,  to  tell 
what  the  project  method  is  not,  than  what  it  is.  It 
is  not  "merely  an  entertainment  for  the  young 
who  are  not  yet  ready  for  serious  science."  There 
seems  to  be  an  impression  that  the  project  method 
is  somehow  connected  with  the  general  science 
movement  and  that  the  whole  matter  has  to  do  with 
young  children.  It  is  quite  as  important  that  high- 
school  and  college  students  should  learn  the  scientific 
method  as  that  junior  high-school  pupils  should  do  so. 

It  is  not  "a  device  for  getting  hold  of  deficient 
students  and  keeping  them  from  making  trouble  or 
from  leaving  school."  This  argument  has  been 
used  for  the  introduction  into  the  schools  of  in- 
dustrial education  and  a  multitude  of  subjects. 
It  was  very  much  used  to  help  the  introduction  of 
science  into  the  schools  a  generation  ago.  But  such 
considerations  are  too  trifling  for  us. 

Nor  are  we  concerned  with  the  question  whether 
incompetent  teachers  can  handle  it.  Every  sug- 
gestion for  improvement  in  the  schools  meets  the 
knock-down  argument  that  incompetent  teachers 
may  not  be  able  to  handle  it. 

The  project  method  is  not  "some  new  thing." 
We  are  not  engaged  in  promoting  new  philosophies 
for  fickle  Athenians.  It  is  not  something  to  be 


THE  IMITATION  OF  THE  MASTERS     235 

stereotyped  and  printed  in  a  "text-book"  and  sold 
to  the  schools  of  a  nation  to  be  memorized  by  a 
million  unhappy  pupils.  It  is  not  "soft  pedagogy," 
nor  "a  hodgepodge,"  nor  "an  unorganized  mass," 
nor  is  it  "desultory  and  scrappy,"  nor  "a  royal 
road  to  learning."  It  is  none  of  those  things  which 
its  pettifogging,  hypercritical  foes  say  of  it,  and  it  is 
not  much  of  what  its  super  zealous  friends  say  of  it. 
If  it  is  true,  as  I  believe  it  is,  that  the  project 
must  always  arise  in  some  "cross-road  situation," 
some  doubt  as  to  the  next  step,  some  question,  vital 
and  impelling  because  of  its  personal  interest,  then 
air  is  not  a  project.  No  intelligent  person  inquires 
about  the  air,  and  no  free  person  would  submit  to 
the  protracted  instruction  which  we  expect  the  young 
people  to  endure  upon  that  topic.  If  we  spend  the 
first  month  teaching  them  what  they  already  know 
about  air  and  the  second  month  teaching  them  what 
they  can  never  care  to  know  about  it,  we  should 
expect  that  the  intelligent  among  them  would  vote 
that  "science  is  the  most  useless  study  in  school." 
Nor  may  we  help  the  matter  by  calling  this  sort 
of  thing  general  science,  or  project  study,  as  some 
misguided  persons  do.  If,  however,  a  pupil  says,  as 
one  did  to  me,  "I  can  understand  the  use  of  a  pro- 
peller to  a  ship  in  water,  but  how  a  propeller  may  be 
useful  to  an  airship  is  a  mystery  to  me,"  we  have 
a  challenge  to  enter  the  topic  of  the  air  by  way  of  a 
project.  And  if  we  satisfy  the  inquirer  so  that  he 
will  come  again,  the  chances  are  that  we  are  good 
teachers.  But  if  we  persistently  put  aside  such 
questions  as  irrelevant  to  our  scheme,  we  shall  not 


236  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

long  have  inquirers,  and  it  is  fairly  certain  that 
we  shall  not  be  rated  as  good  teachers. 

Heat  is  not  a  project.  But  when  the  first  subway 
opened  in  New  York  and  men,  expecting  a  cool 
ride  to  their  offices  on  a  hot  summer  day,  found 
it  hotter  than  the  street,  a  project  in  heat  arose 
which  inspired  diligent  study  on  the  part  of  many. 

Combustion  is  not  a  project.  But  when,  about  a 
century  ago,  the  coal  mines  of  England  were  likely  to 
be  abandoned  on  account  of  the  frequent  explosions 
of  fire  damp,  Humphry  Davy  had  a  project  in  com- 
bustion, kindling  temperature,  and  whatnot,  which 
resulted  in  the  miner's  safety  lamp. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  project  study  by  high- 
school  and  college  students  should  always  involve 
experimental  work.  To  read  a  description  of  proj- 
ect study  by  a  master  scientist  is  often  more  profit- 
able. 

Projects  do  not  often  confine  themselves  to  one 
topic.  It  is  their  nature  to  overflow  these  artificial 
boundaries.  In  this  connection  one  cannot  fail  to 
think  of  the  farm  projects  that  are  engaging  the 
minds  of  some  of  us. 

According  to  Pasteur,  a  project  has  more  to  do 
with  the  general  and  everyday  happenings  of  nature 
than  it  has  with  academic  specialization. 

Pasteur,  the  greatest  scientist  France  has  known, 
and,  by  their  own  election,  the  greatest  Frenchman, 
had  great  difficulty  in  gaining  admission  to  the 
Academy  of  Science  because,  as  he  said,  the  mem- 
bers were  such  narrow  specialists  that  they  could 
not  appreciate  a  piece  of  research. 


THE  IMITATION  OF  THE  MASTERS      237 

They  thought,  because  he  examined  crystals 
with  polarized  light,  he  must  be  a  physicist.  But 
they  sought  him  in  vain  among  the  ranks  of  the 
physicists.  Because  he  studied  crystals,  they 
thought  he  might  be  a  mineralogist.  But  he  was 
not  to  be  found  in  their  ranks.  Because  he  analyzed 
those  crystals,  he  should  be  a  chemist.  But  he  was 
working  upon  fermentation  at  the  time  and  that  was 
not  the  business  of  pure  chemistry.  And  so  the 
founder  of  the  doctrine  of  isomerism  was  rejected. 
This  was  in  1857,  when  Pasteur  was  thirty-five  years 
old. 

In  1861  Biot,  on  account  of  researches  pursued 
by  Pasteur,  nominated  him  for  membership  in  the 
Botanical  section  of  the  Institute,  saying,  "I  can 
hear  the  commonplace  objection :  he  is  a  chemist, 
a  physicist,  not  a  professional  botanist.  But  that 
very  versatility  should  be  in  his  favor."  He  was 
rejected. 

In  1862,  when  Pasteur  was  forty  years  of  age, 
this  chemist,  physicist,  mineralogist,  botanist,  zoolo- 
gist, physiologist,  and,  more  than  all,  this  scientist 
was  elected  to  membership  in  the  Academy  of 
Science  only  by  the  sheer  weight  of  influence  of 
two  great  men,  his  great  friends,  Biot  and  Dumas. 

Pasteur,  the  man  who  put  medicine  upon  a 
scientific  basis,  was  barely  elected  (by  one  vote)  to 
the  Academy  of  Medicine.  This  was  in  1873,  when 
he  was  fifty-one  years  of  age.  He  was  at  the  time 
world  famous  and  the  holder  of  an  honorary  M.D. 
degree  from  a  foreign  university.  At  every  incur- 
sion on  the  domain  of  medicine  he  was  looked  upon 


238  THE  TEACHING  OF  SCIENCE 

by  specialists  as  a  chemist  who  was  poaching  on  the 
preserves  of  others.  The  physicians  and  surgeons 
called  Pasteur  a  physiological  chemist  and  said  that 
physiology  can  have  no  connection  with  medicine 
and  they  considered  it  a  waste  of  time  to  listen  to  a 
chemist.  ^Pasteur  maintained  "that  science  was 
indeed  one  and  all-embracing  and  that  all  sciences 
gain  by  mutual  support."  At  sixty  years  of  age 
"he  vehemently  opposed  the  false  idea  that  each 
science  should  restrict  itself  within  its  own  limita- 
tions." 

His  life  had  been  given  to  the  study  and  the  teach- 
ing of  such  varied  projects  as  isomerism,  fermenta- 
tion, spontaneous  generation,  the  diseases  of  wine 
and  beer,  silkworm  diseases,  fowl  cholera,  swine 
fever,  splenic  fever,  and  hydrophobia.  His  stu- 
dents acquired  not  a  taste  but  a  passion  for  study. 
His  greatest  ambition  in  life  was  to  serve  humanity. 
"Nothing,"  said  he,  "is  more  agreeable  to  a  man 
who  has  made  science  his  career  than  to  increase  the 
number  of  discoveries,  but  his  cup  of  joy  is  full 
when  the  result  of  his  observations  is  put  to  im- 
mediate practical  use." 

"His  great  intuition,  his  imagination,  which 
equaled  that  of  any  poet,  often  carried  him  to  a 
summit  whence  an  immense  horizon  lay  before 
him." 

We  are  now  reaching  the  stage  when  many  are 
attempting  to  define  the  project  method.  Educators 
are  prone  to  separate  into  camps  and  schools  over 
definitions,  and  many  good  ideas  fail  of  realization 
in  the  schools  because  of  partisan  discussions. 


THE  IMITATION  OF  THE  MASTERS     239 

Christ  illustrated  Christianity  by  His  life  and  it 
may  be  doubted  whether  He  has  ever  been  misun- 
derstood. But  Paul  wrote  more  than  half  of  the 
New  Testament  to  define  Christianity  and  the 
church  fathers  have  written  countless  volumes  to 
expound  it  with  the  result  that  hundreds  of  warring 
sects  have  been  formed  and  Christianity  has  been 
almost  lost  in  a  fog  of  dogma  and  debate. 

The  only  way  to  appreciate  the  project  method 
in  the  pursuit  of  science  is  to  study  its  exemplifica- 
tion in  the  lives  of  its  masters.  It  must  be  acquired 
through  imitation  of  the  masters.  The  greatest 
teacher  of  science  in  America  was  Louis  Agassiz. 
One  summer  of  association  with  him  on  the  little 
island  of  Penikese,  with  the  intimate  relationship 
of  disciple  to  a  master,  produced  that  galaxy  of 
scientific  men :  Apgar,  Brooks,  Crosby,  Guyot, 
Holder,  Jordan,  Minot,  Morse,  Packard,  Putnam, 
Shaler,  Wilder,  etc. 

Most  great  scientists  have  been  disciples  and 
imitators  of  other  great  scientists. 

No  one  can  teach  the  scientific  method  unless  he 
is  himself  a  scientist  and  the  scientist  must  teach 
more  by  example  than  by  precept. 


INDEX 


Academic  discussion,  28. 

Academies  the  people's  colleges, 
208. 

Academy  of  Science,  French,  236. 

Accuracy,  49,  87. 

Action  and  Reaction,  134. 

Adams,  99. 

Adaptation  of  the  schools  to  the 
real  good  of  the  greatest  number, 
64. 

Adolescence,  203. 

Agassiz,  Louis,  11,  54,  239. 

Age  of  machinery,  193,  220. 

Aim  of  instruction  in  physics,  105. 

Aims  and  methods  of  science  teach- 
ing, 228. 

Aims  of  physics  teaching,  plan  of 
combining  two,  14. 

Air  not  a  project,  235. 

Air,  the,  120. 

Air,  to  Show  the  Elasticity  or  Spring 
of  the,  128. 

AUanach,  William,  98. 

All  educational  institutions  public, 
62. 

All-round  pedagogues,  69. 

Andrews  and  Rowland,  95. 

Apgar,  239. 

Apparatus,  89. 

Applications,  of  physical  principles 
in  city  school  building,  22; 
generally  taught  after  principles, 
110;  have  not  time  to  teach, 
167 ;  reasons  for  teaching  prin- 
ciples with  reference  to  their,  43. 

Archimedes,  204. 

Archimedes'  principle,  118. 

Arnott,  Neil,  100,  103,  110,  133. 

Articulating  from  above  rather  than 
from  below,  194. 

Authority,  tyranny  of,  8. 


Automobile  and  physics,  65. 
Automobile  projects,  211. 
Avery,  93,  157. 
Avery's  Chemistry,  91. 
Ayres,  L.  P.,  202. 

Bacon,  Roger,  37,  197. 

Baekeland,  L.  H.,  153. 

Bailey,  L.  H.,  66,  72,  112,  157. 

Balliet,  T.  M.,  Evil  influence  of 
graduate  instruction  on  teaching 
in  secondary  schools,  157. 

Bardwell,  F.  L.,  36. 

Baskerville,  Charles,  33. 

Bell-buoy  project,  212. 

Bigotry,  49. 

Biographies  of  scientists,  77,  233. 

Biot,  237. 

"Bird's-eye"  view,  50. 

Black  and  Davis,  111. 

Block-measuring  mania,  169. 

Book-teaching  of  science,  4. 

Books  for  science,  neglect  of,  226. 

Boston  Latin  School,  57. 

Botanist,  204. 

Botany,  teaching  of,  165. 

Boyle's  law,  111. 

Boys,  percentage  in  high  schools, 
225. 

Brewster,  David,  101,  102. 

Brinton,  2,  10. 

Brooks,  239. 

Browsing  among  many  sciences,  58. 

Buoyancy,  118. 

Burr,  W.  H.,  47. 

Butler,  Nicholas  Murray,  132,  200. 

Calibration  of  thermometer,  20. 
Cambridge  University,  overspecial- 

ization,  152. 
Carefulness  in  experimenting,  8. 


241 


INDEX 


Carhart  and  Chute,  92. 
Cavendish  exclusiveness  in  science, 

65. 

Cayley,  48. 
Central  Association  of  Science  and 

Mathematics  Teachers,  47. 
Charles,  law  of,  111. 
Chemical  action,  affected  by  heat 

and  moisture,  179 ;    affected  by 

time,  179;   producing  heat,  181. 
Chemical     doctrine,    and     church 

catechisms,  174;    and  grammar, 

177. 

Chemical  History  of  a  Candle,  181. 
Chemical    theory,  in    high   school 

instruction,    174 ;    in  its  proper 

place,    178;     of    secondary    im- 
portance, 176. 
Chemistry  and  the  Technical  World, 

66. 
Chemistry  rather  than  pupils  the 

object  of  instruction,  187. 
Chemistry  requirements  prepared 

by  a  meager  few,  186. 
Chemistry    taught   by    principals, 

188. 
Chemistry  teachers  need  to  study 

other  subjects,  43. 
Children,  before  fifteen  may  acquire 

real    and    living    knowledge    of 

science,  58 ;    as  scientists,   197 ; 

eager  to  investigate,  2  ;  endowed 

with  scientific  spirit,  230. 
Christianity,  239. 
Church  father,  239. 
Clarke,  F.  W.,  36. 
Clifford,  H.  E.,  32. 
"Cold-blooded"  science,  54. 
"Cold-blooded"  scientist,  11. 
Coleman,  97. 
Coleridge,  10. 

College  and  secondary  school,  13. 
College  course,  portion  of,  crowded 

into  high  schools,  18. 
College  dominance  will  be  transient, 

65. 
College  domination  of  High  Schools, 

158. 
College  entrance  course  meager  in 

general  information,  15. 
College      Entrance      Examination 

Board,   32,    159. 


College  Entrance  Examinations, 
24;  made  by  specialists,  158; 
new  type,  220. 

College  entrance  requirements  a 
misfit,  26 ;  an  unmitigated  curse, 
71 ;  education  too  greatly  in- 
fluenced by,  13. 

College   girls,    225. 

College  graduates,  as  teachers  of 
high-school  pupils,  159;  show 
little  fruit  of  scientific  training, 
198. 

College  instruction  forced  upon 
secondary  schools,  25. 

College  instructors  ashamed  to 
teach,  153. 

College  preparation,  vicious  term, 
71. 

College  preparatory  course,  a  hodge- 
podge, 198 ;  not  science,  198. 

College  professors  in  physics  com- 
plain that  students  do  not  gen- 
eralize, 17. 

College  should  stand  for  extensive 
rather  than  intensive  study,  77. 

College  teachers  have  created  the 
situation  and  execrated  the  re- 
sults, 158. 

College  teaching,  defective,  199; 
deteriorating,  53. 

Colleges,  had  formerly  great 
teachers,  155 ;  impertinent  in 
their  requirements,  158;  need 
inspection,  71 ;  not  interested 
in  education,  199. 

Combustion  not  a  project,  236. 

Commission  to  investigate  returns 
on  files  of  College  Entrance 
Examination  Board,  172. 

Committee  on  practical  chemistry, 
186. 

Common  sense,  applied  to  teaching 
of  physics,  104 ;  not  a  natural 
heritage,  9;  organized,  176. 

Community,  demanding  physics, 
15;  demands  general  courses, 
154;  what  it  wants  in  educa- 
tion, 155. 

Conservatism,  scientific,  87. 

Control  of  entrance  requirements, 
63. 

Controlling  fires,  137. 


INDEX 


243 


Cooke,  J.  P.,  47,  54,  57,  58. 

Cooley,  93. 

Correlation  of  sciences,  35. 

Corroding  of  iron,  177. 

Coulter,  John  M.,  198. 

Coulter,  Stanley,  73. 

Crew,  93. 

Crew  and  Jones,  99. 

Crosby,  239. 

Culture  being  driven  out,  55. 

Curiosity  and  wonder  from  child- 
hood to  maturity,  33. 

Curriculum  a  series  of  projects, 
230. 

Darwin,  6,  233. 

Davis,  Louis  Sherman,  33. 

Davis,  W.  M.,  52. 

Davy,  Sir  Humphry,  11,  17,  54,  57, 

65,  87,  156,  204,  234,  236. 
De  Morgan,  48. 
Decadent  tendencies  due  to  college 

control,  71. 

Defenseless  pupils,  204. 
Definitions,  19. 
Denbigh,  J.  H.,  59. 
Dewey,  John,  197. 
Dewing,  A.  S.,  67,  69. 
Difficulties  of  an  immature  mind, 

49. 
Disciplinary    as    classics,     science 

must  be  as,  8. 

Disgust  with  the  high  school,  158. 
"Double  weighing,"  20. 
Dramatic  presentation,  195. 
Draper,  John  W.,  106,  115. 
Drill,  years  spent  in,  169. 
Drowning  trees  a  project,  214. 
Duty  to  our  children,  58. 

Earning  a  living,  9. 

Eastern  Association  of  Physics 
Teachers,  13,  32. 

Educated  people  have  forgotten 
more  than  others,  171. 

Education,  an  exponent  of  the 
times,  62;  changing  ideas  of, 
226;  in  forgetting,  206;  must  be 
conservative,  160;  of  pupil 
according  to  his  own  needs,  14. 

Educational  Review,  31,  48,  49, 
64,  68. 


Educational  theories  changed,  155. 

Educators  prone  to  separate  into 
camps,  238. 

Effect  of  interesting  work  on  intelli- 
gence and  morals,  53. 

Effect  of  specialization  upon  teach- 
ing, 54. 

Eggs,  148. 

Electricity,  20. 

Elementary  Lessons  in  Magnetism 
and  Electricity,  98. 

Elementary  Manual  of  Chemistry, 
90. 

Elements  of  Physics,  100. 

Eliot  and  Storer,  90. 

Embarrassments  in  high-school 
situation,  224. 

Enrichment  of  the  high-school 
course  in  physics,  13. 

Equipment  for  teaching  of  physics, 
104. 

Everyday  world  as  a  laboratory, 
157. 

Evils  of  uniformity,  71. 

Evolution,  6. 

Exactness  comes  late  in  youthful 
minds,  49.  ( 

Examination  of  prominent  citizens, 
202. 

Examinations,  by  outsiders,  55 ; 
special  gift  for  passing  written, 
172. 

Excursions  to  factories,  175. 

Expansion  of  iron,  two  ways  of 
treating,  29. 

Experience,  laying  foundation  by 
furnishing  basis  of,  83 ;  may 
serve  to  intrench  a  person  more 
firmly  in  error,  173. 

Experiences,  in  physics,  82 ;  or- 
ganization of,  21 ;  which  teach 
the  idea  of  destructive  distilla- 
tion, 180. 

Experiments,  luminous  in  different 
degrees  to  different  minds,  4 ;  to 
make  subject  real,  43. 

Facts   in   science   worth   while   to 

know,  193. 
Faraday,  4,  11,  17,  54,  57,  66,  87, 

100,  181,  204,  228,  233, 
Farm  projects,  211. 


244 


INDEX 


Farrand,  Wilson,  24. 

Felter,  W.  L.,  49. 

Ferguson,  101,  102,  103,  110,  132. 

Fischer,  Karl,  31. 

Forcing  nature,  49. 

Forked  road  situation,  203. 

Formulas,  19,  37. 

Forty  quantitative  experiments,  20, 
25. 

Franklin,  W.  S.,  32,  75,  132,  157. 

Fryer,  Roy,  59. 

Full  mind  alone  can  elementarize, 
72. 

Fundamental  principles,  198,  202, 
203,  204 ;  without  root  in  experi- 
ence, 219. 

Gage's  and  Avery's  text-books,  25. 

Gage's  Elements,  19. 

Gage's  Physics,  91. 

Galileo,  204,  228,  233. 

General  courses,  culture  courses,  57. 

General  science,  177,  188,  201,  203, 

207;     furnishes    new    basis    for 

organization,  203. 
Generalization,    Davy's   wonderful 

power  of,  17 ;   importance  of,  36. 
Genetic  organization,  203. 
Girls,  percentage  in  high  schools, 

225. 

Glorious  uniformity,  168. 
Goddard,  H.  H.,  37. 
Goethe,  11. 

Goodwin,  Edward  J.,  64. 
Grammar,  205. 
Gray,  Elisha,  58. 
Great  inheritance  of  scientific  truth, 

59. 

Great  names  in  research  and  in- 
ventions, 49. 
Great   students  formed    by    great 

masters,  68. 
Great  teachers,  68. 
Great  wholes  the  need  of  the  young, 

76. 

Greater  control  by  the  public,  63. 
Greatness    marked    by    ability    to 

simplify,  72. 
Guyot,  239. 

Habits,  painstaking,  8. 
Hadley,  President,  153. 


Hall  and  Bergen,  92. 

Hall  bedroom  instructor,  188. 

Hall,  G.  Stanley,  31,  33,  65,  71,  203. 

Heat  not  a  project,  236. 

Henderson  and  Woodhull,  94. 

High-school  courses  planned  for 
boys,  225. 

High-school  libraries,  226. 

High-school  master,  not  servant,  71. 

High-school  physics  teachers,  sad 
fate  of,  18. 

High-school  pupils  willing  to  work, 
29. 

High-school  situation,  222. 

High-school  teachers,  few  able  to 
specialize  in  their  work,  154; 
priest-ridden,  14. 

High  schools  and  applied  science, 
66 ;  and  the  public,  56 ;  domi- 
nated by  colleges,  158 ;  phenom- 
enal growth  of,  222 ;  the  people's 
colleges,  208. 

Histories  of  the  development  of 
science,  233. 

History,  of  physics  teaching  for 
past  25  years,  24;  of  science, 
61,  77. 

Hoadley,  98. 

Holden,  95. 

Holder,  239. 

Homework,  20. 

Hooker,  106. 

Hopkins,  Arthur  John,  50. 

Hortvet,  94. 

How  to  Study,  200. 

How  We  Think,  200. 

Humanism  for  community  service, 
47. 

Humanities  which  do  not  function, 
193. 

Humboldt,  54. 

Huxley,  9,  26,  54,  57,  87. 

Ignorance,  characterizes  specialists, 
226  ;  of  specialists,  69. 

Imagination,  developing  construc- 
tive, 5 ;  for  appreciating  facts, 
5 ;  for  investigation,  46 ;  in- 
tolerance of,  156;  of  Pasteur, 
238. 

Imitating  the  teacher,  177. 

Imitation  of  Masters,  231. 


INDEX 


Impedimenta  and  human  life,  35. 
Importance  of  generalization,  36. 
Impressions  upon  brain  made  by 

repetitions,  42. 
Increase   in    number    of    subjects, 

226. 

Induction,  51. 
Inductive  method,  90,  93. 
Inductive   work   to   be   eliminated 

from  laboratory,  74. 
Information    giving,     47 ;      rather 

than  training,  195. 
Information     should     ooze     from 

ever    pore,  77. 
Injustice     of      organizing     public 

schools  in  the  interests  of   the 

few,  64. 

Instruments  of  precision,  49. 
Intellectual       revolution       during 

college  course,  86. 
Intensive  and  extensive  method  in 

teaching,  41. 

Intensive  method  in  chemistry,  40. 
Interest,  and    education,    58 ;     in 

science  proportioned  to  bearing 

on  life  of  student,  33  ;  in  subject 

rather  than  student,  26. 
Interested  in  student  more  than  in 

science,  157. 

Intuition  of  Pasteur,  238. 
Investigation,  habit  of,  1. 
Ivanhoe,  teaching  of,  165. 

Jaquish,  B.  M.,  77. 

Jordan,  David  Starr,  158,  239. 

Kellerman,  S.  V.,  158. 
Kelvin,  204. 

Kingdom  of  science,  197. 
Kipling,  69. 

Knowledge,  first-hand,  16 ;  second- 
hand, 2. 
Krusi,  Hermann,  103. 

Laboratory,  114;  a  place  to  get 
appreciation  of  things  taught, 
16 ;  for  neither  induction  nor 
verification,  16 ;  furnishes  means 
of  understanding  truths  of 
science,  6;  well-illustrated  course 
of  lectures  more  valuable  than 
well-equipped,  32;  work  may 


accentuate  the  impractical,  174; 
work  most  unsatisfactory  part  of 
physics  requirement,  161. 

Laboratory  manual,  20. 

Laboratory  notebook,  162. 

Laboratory  requirements,  162. 

Laboratory  work,  91,  92;  artificial, 
74. 

Laplace,  6. 

Large  knowledge  in  many  fields, 
57. 

Latin,  teaching  of,  166. 

Law  under  which  mind  works,  40. 

Laws,  19  ;  of  physics,  205. 

Learn  by  imitation,  52. 

Lecture,  importance  of,  74. 

Lecture  method,   17. 

Lectures,  illustrated  by  experi- 
ments, etc.,  17 ;  to  enrich 
physics,  171 ;  use  of,  92. 

Lessons  on  Objects,  103. 

Lewis,  W.  D.,  158. 

Losing  love  for  natural  objects  in 
school,  3. 

Lowell  Institute,  57. 

Lowell,  President,  154. 

McMurry,  F.  M.,  109,  112,  200. 

Machines,  subject  of,  meagerly 
treated  in  text-books,  103. 

Magie,  W.  F.,  66. 

Making  knowledge  real,  52. 

Mammoth  Cave,  212. 

Mania  for  codifying  subject  matter, 
213. 

Mann  and  Twiss,  96. 

Mann,  C.  R.,  34,  67,  75,  228. 

Massachusetts  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, 206. 

Mathematical  frivolities,  161. 

Maxwell,  54,  87,  156,  204. 

Mayo,  Elizabeth,  103. 

Measuring  gas,  201. 

Mechanics,  20. 

Memory  as  an  evidence  of  educa- 
tion, 226. 

Mental  acquisition  and  examina- 
tion, 76. 

Method  of  treatment  of  subjects 
taught  destructive  of  welfare  of 
the  masses,  158. 

Methods,  of   experimental    science 


246 


INDEX 


for  all  educated  men,  59;  of 
instruction  will  be  modified  to 
deal  with  greater  numbers,  64. 

Milliken  and  Gale,  97. 

Mills,  Wesley,  3. 

Miner's  lamp,  236. 

Minot,  239. 

Mistakes  repeated  generation  after 
generation,  2. 

Modern  life  and  science,  65. 

Modern  trend  of  physics  and 
chemistry  teaching,  24. 

Morgan,  W.  C.,  66. 

Morrison,  H.  C.,  65. 

Morse,  239. 

Mortality  of  high-school  pupils, 
190. 

Motor  boat  projects,  210. 

Narrow  lines  of  orthodoxy,  54. 
Natural  method,  218. 
Natural  Philosophers,  54. 
Natural  Philosophy,  88,  101,  103, 

133. 
Natural  philosophy   and    physics, 

66. 
Natural    Philosophy    for    Schools, 

106. 
Natural  progress  from  qualitative  to 

quantitative,  51. 
Natural       Science,       Educational 

Value  of,  1. 
Nature  study,  applicable  to  college, 

157 ;    as  applicable  to  college  as 

to  common  schools,  72 ;    not  a 

new  subject,  157. 
Nature's  Miracles,  58. 
Nebular  hypothesis,  6. 
New  England  Association  of  Chem- 
istry Teachers,  36. 
New  Era,  2. 
New  Jersey  State  Science  Teachers 

Association,  32. 
New    Movement    among    Physics 

Teachers,  55. 
New  Physics,  51,  52. 
New  York  Biology  Teachers  Club, 

186. 
New    York     Chemistry    Teachers 

Club,  33,  186. 
New  York  Physics  Teachers  Club, 

186. 


New  York  Schoolmasters  Associa- 
tion, 24. 

New  York  State  Science  Teachers 
Association,  186. 

New  York  Times,  64. 

New  York's  water  supply,  115. 

Newcomb,  Simon,  48,  87. 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  101,  204. 

Nichols,  69. 

Obedience,  unquestioning,  8. 

Object  Lessons,  103. 

Observation  should  be  qualitative 

before  it  is  quantitative,  36. 
Observing  relations,  3. 
Occultism,  2. 
Olmsted's   Natural  Philosophy  for 

Schools,  105. 
Open-mindedness,  50. 
Organization   of   experiences,    176 ; 

of  subject  matter,  201,  203. 
Over-accuracy  is  atrophy,  76. 
Over-systematizing,  73. 

Packard,  239. 

Parker,  Richard  Green,  104. 

Part-truth,  50. 

Passion  for  being  hoaxed,  7. 

Pasteur,  54,  204,  213,  228,  233,  236 ; 

opposed   to    specialization,    238 ; 

served  humanity,  238. 
Patterson,  Robert,  101. 
Paul,  239. 
Penikese,  239. 
People  know  what  they  mean  by 

education,  65. 

People  turning  to  educational  insti- 
tutions, 56. 
People's  colleges,  208. 
Perkins,  Professor,  74. 
Persistence  in  getting  knowledge,  8. 
Personality,  of  great  scientists,  67 ; 

of  greatest  educational  influence, 

68. 

Pestalozzi,  103. 
Phenomenology,  33. 
Philip's  Experiments,  48. 
Philosophical  apparatus,  89. 
Ph.D.  candidate,  pitiable  spectacle 

of,  4. 
Physical  experiences  neglected  for 

accuracy,  34. 


INDEX 


247 


Physical  principles,  19. 

Physical  science,  a  great  power,  60 ; 
requisites  of  teacher  of,  84. 

Physicist,  205. 

Physics,  a  universal  need,  157; 
and  chemistry,  more  descriptive 
and  less  mathematical,  24 ;  and 
chemistry  instruction  in  various 
countries,  31 ;  and  daily  life, 
66;  and  machinery,  65;  and 
mathematics,  91,  92 ;  and  re- 
ligion, 168;  as  a  Branch  of 
Education  for  All,  108;  from 
birth  to  grave,  218;  high-school 
pupils  being  driven  from,  19 ; 
in  high  school  should  be  a  study 
of  phenomena,  19 ;  mathematical 
developments  in,  32  ;  peculiarly 
well  suited  to  fit  students  for 
life,  84 ;  poorly  taught  in  col- 
leges, 159  ;  practical,  157 ;  prin- 
ciples, 115  ;  "stiff"  course  in,  27 ; 
students  vary  in  capacity  to  un- 
derstand, 82 ;  within  the  scanty 
pages  of  the  syllabus,  73  ;  world- 
wide glorious  science,  73. 

Physics  teacher  should  teach  hy- 
giene, 117. 

Physics  teaching,  in  colleges  grow- 
ing more  unsatisfactory,  25 ; 
influenced  by  movement  to  teach 
from  object,  103. 

Physiology  in  physics  and  chem- 
istry, 38. 

Platform  for  science  teaching,  78. 

Politics  in  schools,  224. 

Popular  Science  Monthly,  4. 

Porter,  Noah,  201. 

Practical  applications,  88,  92;  of 
physical  science,  75. 

Practical  chemistry,  186. 

Preconceived  notions,  51. 

Preparatory  fallacy,  203,  205. 

Preparatory  science  unscientific,  195. 

Principles,  110,  167;  from  applica- 
tions, 175 ;  reasons  for  teaching, 
with  reference  to  their  applica- 
tions, 43 ;  that  grow  out  of 
life's  experiences,  1 12 ;  topical 
syllabus  a  list  of,  167. 

Problems  of  life  not  differentiated 
into  special  sciences,  194. 


Processes  and  principles,  66. 

Procrustean  bed  of  physics,  72. 

Professional  status  of  high-school 
teachers,  14. 

Project  characterized,  228. 

Project  method,  228,  231;  dupli- 
cates methods  of  life,  230; 
what  it  is  not,  234. 

Project  study,  197,  207. 

Projects,  194;  in  physics,  219; 
in  Science,  210;  overflow  arti- 
ficial boundaries,  236 ;  studies 
by  Pasteur,  238 ;  vs.  specialized 
science,  196 ;  provisional  defini- 
tions, 50. 

Pseudo-science,  2. 

Psychological  organization,  199, 
203. 

Public  dissatisfaction,  156. 

Public  high  schools,  importance  of, 
52. 

Public  Schools  of  Springfield,  111., 
202. 

Public  sentiment  to  determine  kind 
of  physics  to  be  taught  in  high 
schools  and  colleges,  31. 

Pupils  of  all  races,  224. 

Purpose  of  beginning  course  in 
physics  to  make  nature  seem 
natural,  83. 

Putnam,  239. 

Qualitative  and  quantitative  experi- 
ments, 42. 

Quantitative  experiment  as  a  goal, 
21. 

Quantitative  laboratory  work,  75. 

Quantitative  problems,  20. 

Quantitative  treatment,  114. 

Quantitative  work,  49,  91 ;  may 
be  bad,  157. 

Questions  in  science,  192. 

Radot,  234. 

Readers  of  examinations,  161,  167. 

Reading  habit  of  scientists,  232. 

Reading  on  subject  of  physics,  114. 

Reading  widely,  51. 

Reason  above  authority,  8. 

Reasons  for  teaching  principles 
with  reference  to  their  applica- 
tions, 43. 


248 


INDEX 


Reduction  of  students  in  physics, 

24. 
Repetitions,  impressions  upon  brain 

made  by,  42. 
Report  of  six  high-school  men  on 

college    entrance    examinations, 

161. 
Research,  231,  236;    and  teaching, 

53,  155 ;    in  college  an  extension 

of  experience  as  boy,  33 ;   linked 

to  high-school  instruction,  18. 
Restriction     of     physics     to     the 

mathematically  inclined,  15. 
Rolfe  and  Gillet,  107. 
Rough  apparatus,  49. 
Russell,  James  E.,  114. 

Salary  for  high-school  teachers,  189. 

Same  public  supports  colleges  and 
schools,  56. 

Scheele,  37. 

Scholar,  how  produced,  59. 

School  Compendium  of  Natural 
and  Experimental  Philosophy, 
104. 

School  Science  and  Mathematics, 
50,  59,  67. 

School  taxes,  224. 

School  work,  real,  202. 

Schools  overcrowded  with  subjects, 
226. 

Science,  38,  47 ;  and  humanism, 
68 ;  and  lofty  ideals,  61 ;  and 
poetry,  11;  and  religion,  9; 
boundaries  disappear  as  science 
progresses,  152 ;  common  hon- 
esty, 7 ;  for  culture,  46 ;  for  in- 
formation, 176;  for  the  people, 
57 ;  has  the  confidence  of  the 
people,  67 ;  mission  of,  2 ;  more 
than  measurement,  47 ;  one,  58 ; 
organized  common-sense,  176 ; 
overspecialized,  a  mere  hobby, 
153 ;  part  of  human  experience, 
67 ;  retarded  by  isolating  one 
science  from  another,  152 ; 
services  to  humanity,  65 ;  taught 
through  the  channels  of  ex- 
perience, 184. 

Science  culture  and  classical  cul- 
ture, 47. 

Science  instruction  practical,  66. 


Science  teaching,  and  the  library, 
190 ;  for  all,  52 ;  more  human- 
ized, 67 ;  wandering  out  of  the 
sunlight,  175. 

Scientific  apparatus,  226. 

Scientific  Culture  and  other  essays, 
47,  57,  58,  59. 

Scientific  method,  illustrated  by 
masters,  228 ;  universal,  228. 

Scientific  mind,  3,  197. 

Scientific  observation,  3 ;  example 
of,  5. 

Scientific  truth,  2. 

Scientist  and  humanist,  47. 

Scientists,  not  specialists  in  early 
life,  87 ;  self-sacrifice  of  great, 
37. 

Secondary  and  elementary  schools, 
14. 

Sedgwick,  N.  T.,  38,  68. 

Segregation  of  boys  and  girls,  189. 

Self-activity  of  pupil,  17. 

Self-sacrifice  of  great  scientists, 
37. 

Serious  science,  197,  202,  203,  204. 

Shaler,  54,  239. 

Sheldon,  103. 

Simplification  of  subject  and  ap- 
paratus, 92. 

Simplicity  and  progression,  —  not 
truth,  50. 

Skepticism,  7. 

Slate,  95. 

Smattering,  8,  48,  170. 

Smith-Lever  bill,  207. 

Snap  judgments,  8. 

Spaulding,  73. 

Special  Methods  in  Science,  109, 
112. 

Specialists,  236 ;  ignorance  of,  226 ; 
narrow-minded,  153. 

Specialization,  effect  upon  teach- 
ing, 153 ;  in  teaching,  50 ;  un- 
fitting for  both  research  and 
teaching,  152. 

Specific  gravity,  118. 

Specific  heat,  21. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  9,  10,  11. 

Stalky  &  Co.,  69. 

Starvation  course,  54. 

Steele,  90. 

"Stiff"  course  in  physics,  27. 


INDEX 


249 


Storer  and  Lindsley,  90. 

Stories  in  Science  Briefly  Told,  192. 

Strength  of  Materials,  88. 

Strong,  Josiah,  2. 

Studies  as  important  as  diversions, 

53. 
Study  of  science,  a  moral  ballast, 

9 ;   humanitarian,  10. 
Subjects  not  inherently  difficult,  72. 
Supposed  needs  of  college,  14. 
Syllabus,  55,  231 ;  cannot  be  made 

to  fit  whole  country,  78 ;  number 

of  topics  in,  164. 
Sylvester,  48. 

Talks,  the  method  of  the  real 
teacher,  76. 

Tarnishing  of  metals,  179. 

Teacher,  not  a  task-master,  60; 
of  physical  science,  training  of, 
84 ;  the  talking,  177. 

Teacher's  recollection  of  himself  as 
a  child,  70. 

Teachers,  of  science  classified,  185  ; 
over-supervised,  224;  the  most 
attractive  class,  70;  two  camps 
of,  70 ;  and  research,  155. 

Teaching  function  and  research 
function,  72. 

Teaching,  how  affected  by  spe- 
cialization, 153. 

Teaching  subjects  rather  than 
pupils,  195. 

Teaching  what  the  world  needs, 
158. 

Teaching  which  is  of  real  value,  60. 

Text-book,  arranged  to  teach  chem- 
ical principles  in  relationship  to 
industrial  purposes,  34;  should 
be  more  than  dictionary.  19 ;  to 
appeal  to  humanistic  side  of 
pupils,  35. 

Text-books,  demand  for,  105 ;  en- 
cyclopedias, 231 ;  not  study 
plans,  232. 

Thompson,  Sir  J.  J.,  152. 


Thorndike,  E.  L.,  64. 
Thorndike's  Principles  of  Teaching, 

109. 
Thoroughness,   48,    169;    may   be 

wooden,  220. 
Thwing,  94. 
Timid  about  teaching  more  than 

one  subject,  50. 

Topical    syllabus    a    list    of    prin- 
ciples, 167. 
Torrey,  94. 
Training  in  the  conduct  of  life  a 

good  fitting  for  college,  158. 
Trowbridge,  John,  49,  51,  91. 
Truth,  discovery  of,  not  enough, 

153. 
Tuition  fees  and  cost  of  education 

in  college,  53. 
Tyndall,  4,  9,  17,  54,  108,  204. 

Uniformity,  craze  for,  73. 

University,  must  grow  out  of  com- 
munity, 154 ;  not  in  touch  with 
community  will  die,  154. 

Unlearning,  49. 

Up  to  date  in  facts  and  theories, 
50. 

Vitality    of    physics    in    scientific 

imagination,  34. 

Vitalize  teaching  of  physics,  110. 
Vitalizing  physics,  114. 

Water  and  air,  subjects  to  begin 
teaching  of  physics,  115. 

Webster,  Daniel,  106. 

Well-rounded  mind,  69. 

Wells,  88. 

West,  A.  F.,  68. 

White,  Gilbert,  233. 

Whitton,  71. 

Wilder,  239. 

Wisconsin  State  Teachers  Associa- 
tion, 62. 

Wisdom  vs.  goodness,  2. 


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